And by him, in another hole,
Afflicted Ralpho, cheek by joul:
She came upon him in his wooden
Magician's circle, on the sudden,
As spirits do t' a conjurer,

110

When in their dreadful shapes th' appear.
No sooner did the Knight perceive her, 115
But straight he fell into a fever,
Inflam'd all over with disgrace,

To be seen by her in such a place;

Which made him hang his head, and scowl,
And wink, and goggle like an owl:

He felt his brains begin to swim,

When thus the Dame accosted him :

120

This place (quoth she) they say's inchanted,
And with delinquent spirits haunted,

That here are ty'd in chains, and scourg'd, 125
Until their guilty crimes be purg'd:

Look, there are two of them appear,

Like persons I have seen somewhere.

unlucky and unexpected visit of the Lady; the attitude and surprise of the Knight, the confusion and blushes of the lover, and the satyrical raillery of the mistress, are represented in lively colours; and conspire to make this interview wonderfully pleasing. (Mr. B.)

v. 119, 120.

and scowl,-And wink, and goggle like an owl]

When ladies did him wooe,

Though they did smile, he seem'd to scowl,

As doth the fair broad-faced fowl,

That sings, tu-whit, tu-whooe.

(First Copy of Panegyric Verses, upon T. Coryat, and his Crudities)

v. 131, 132.—and some-Have heard the devil beat a drum] Alluding to the story in Glanvil, of the Dæmon of Tedworth. See Pref.

20

Some have mistaken blocks and posts
For spectres, apparitions, ghosts,
With saucer-eyes, and horns; and some
Have heard the devil beat a drum:

But if our eyes are not false glasses,

That give a wrong account of faces,

130

140

That beard and I should be acquainted, 135
Before 'twas conjur'd and inchanted;
For though it be disfigured somewhat,
As if 't had lately been in combat,
It did belong to a worthy Knight,
Howe'er this goblin is come by't.
When Hudibras the Lady heard,
Discoursing thus upon his beard,
And speak with such respect and honour,
Both of the beard, and the beard's owner;
He thought it best to set as good

A face upon it, as he cou'd,

And thus he spoke :-Lady, your bright
And radiant eyes are in the right;

145

to Sadducismus Triumphatus, and the narrative at large, part 2. p. 89. to 117, inclusive. Mr. Wood (Athen. Oxon. vol. 2. col. 189. 1st. edit.) takes notice of this narrative concerning the famed disturbance at the house of Tho. Mompesson, Esq. at Tedworth in Wilts, occasioned by its being haunted with evil spirits; and the beating of a drum invisibly every night from February 1662, to the beginning of the year after. To this Mr. Oldham alludes (Satyr 4. upon the Jesuites, edit. 6. p. 73.) where speaking of popish holy-water, he says:

One drop of this, if us'd, had pow'r to fray

The legions from the hogs of Gadara:

This wou'd have silenc'd quite the Wiltshire Drum,

And made the prating fiend of Mascon dumb.

v. 142. altered 1674, To take kind notice of his beard, restored 1704.

The beard's th' identique beard you knew,

The same numerically true:

Nor is it worn by fiend or elf,

But it's proprietor himself.

O heav'ns! (quoth she) can that be true?

I do begin to fear 'tis you:

Not by your individual whiskers,

But by your dialect and discourse,

That never spoke to man or beast
In notions vulgarly exprest.
But what malignant star, alas!
Has brought you both to this sad

pass

Quoth he,-The fortune of the war,

Which I am less afflicted for,

Than to be seen with beard and face,

By you, in such a homely case.

150

155

?

160.

Quoth she,-Those need not be asham'd 165

For being honourably maim'd;

If he that is in battle conquer'd,

Have any title to his own beard,

Though yours be sorely lugg'd and torn,

It does your visage more adorn,

170

Than if 'twere prun'd, and starch'd, and lander'd,
And cut square by the Russian standard.

v. 164.——in such a homely case] In such elenctique case, in the two first editions of 1664.

v. 169. Though yours be sorely lugg'd and torn] See Shakespear's Comedy of Errors, act 5. vol. 3. p. 54. and an account of Sancho Pancha and the Goatherd pulling one another by the beard. In which, says Mr. Gayton, (Notes upon Don Quixote, book 3. chap. 10. p. 141.) they were verifying that song,

Oh! heigh brave Arthur of Bradley,

A beard without hairs looks madly,

A torn beard's like a tatter'd ensign,

That's bravest which there are most rents in.
That petticoat about your shoulders,

Does not so well become a soldier's;

175

In some places the shaving of beards is a punishment, as among the Turks: Nicephorus, in his Chronicle, makes mention of Baldwin, Prince of Edessa, who pawned his beard for a great sum of money; which was redeemed by his Father, Gabriel, Prince of Mitylene, with a large sum, to prevent the ignominy which his son was like to suffer, by the loss of his beard. (Dr. Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, s. 12. p. 200, 201.)

v. 171. Than if 'twere prun'd, and starch'd, and lander'd] In the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, intitled, Pylades and Corinna, 1731, p. 21. we have the following account of Mr. Richard Shute, her grandfather, a Turkey Merchant. "That he was very nice in the mode of that age, his valet being some hours every morning in starching his beard, and curling his whiskers: during which time, a gentleman, whom he maintained as a companion, always read to him upon some useful subject.” Mr. Cleveland, in his Hue and Cry after Sir John Presbyter, Works, p. 40, says,

The bush upon his chin, like a carv'd story,

In a box-knot, cut by the Directory.

Shakespear, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, act 4. vol. 1. p. 134. hints at their wearing strings to their beards in his time; and John Taylor, the Water Poet, humourously describes the great variety of beards in his time. (Superbiæ Flagellum, Works, p. 3.)

Now a few lines to paper I will put

Of men's beards strange, and variable cut,

In which, there's some, that take as vain a pride,

As almost in all other things beside;

Some are reap'd most substantial like a brush,
Which makes a nat'ral wit, known by the bush;
And in my time of some men I have heard,
Whose wisdom have been only wealth, and beard:
Many of these, the proverb well doth fit,
Which says, bush natural, more hair than wit:
Some seem as they were starched stiff and fine,

Like to the bristles of some angry swine:
And some, to set their love's-desire on edge,
Are cut and prun'd, like to a quick-set hedge;

And I'm afraid they are worse handled,

Although i' th' rear, your beard the van led:
And those uneasy bruises make
My heart for company to ache,
To see so worshipful a friend

I' th' pillory set, at the wrong end.

180

Quoth Hudibras,-This thing call'd pain,

Is (as the learned stoicks maintain)

Not bad simpliciter, nor good;
But merely as 'tis understood.

Some like a spade, some like a fork, some square,
Some round, some mow'd like stubble, some stark bare;
Some sharp, stiletto-fashion, dagger-like,

That may with whisp'ring, a man's eyes outpike:

Some with the hammer cut, or Roman T,

Their beards extravagant, reformed must be.
Some with the quadrate, some triangle fashion;

Some circular, some oval in translation í

·Some perpendicular in longitude:

Some like a thicket for their grassitude;

185

That heights, depths, breadths, triform, square, oval, round,
And rules geometrical in beards are found.

(See Inigo Jones's Verses upon T. Coryat, and his Crudities.)

v. 172. And cut square by the Russian standard] Dr. Giles Fletcher, in his Treatise of Russia, (see Purchase his Pilgrims, 3d. part, lib. 3. p. 458.) observes, "That the Russian nobility and quality, accounting it a grace to be somewhat gross and burly; they therefore nourish and spread their beards to have them long and broad." This fashion continued amongst them, till the time of the Czar, Peter the Great, "who compelled them to part with these ornaments, sometimes by laying a swingeing tax upon them; and at others, by ordering those he found with beards, to have them pulled up by the roots, or shaved with a blunt razor, which drew the skin after it, and by these means, scarce a beard was left in the kingdom at his death: but such a veneration had this people for these ensigns of gravity, that many of them carefully preserved their beards in their cabinets, to be buried with them: imagining, perhaps, they should make but an odd figure in the grave with their naked chins." The