And am by your own doctrine taught, Quoth she,-If what you say is true, you; But 'tis not what we do, but say, In love and preaching, that must sway. Is to forbid my pulse to move, 340 My beard to grow, my ears to prick up, 345 Love's pow'r's too great to be withstood T'a petticoat, and made him spin; 350 v. 346. Or (when I'm in a fit) to hickup] A thing which he could not help; though such a thing might have been prohibited in the Inquisition, as well as involuntary sneezing; of which Mr. Baker (see History of the Inquisition, p. 98.) gives the following instance. "A prisoner (says he) in the Inquisition coughed; the keepers came to him, and admonished him to forbear coughing, because it was unlawful to make a noise in that place: he answered, 'twas not in his power: however they admonished him a second time to forbear it; and because he did not, they stripped him naked, and cruelly beat him: this increased his cough, for which they beat him so often, that at last he died, through the pain and anguish of the strypes." v. 347. Command me to piss out the moon] This had been an unreasonable command, had he been even possessed with Pantagruel's romantic faculty; who is said to have destroyed a whole army of giants, or Dipsodes, in this way, and to have occasioned a deluge nine miles round: (Rabelais's Works, vol. 2. b. 2, ch. 28. p. 206.) Seiz'd on his club, and made it dwindle 355 "Twas he that made Emperors gallants To their own sisters, and their aunts; To play with pages at leap-frog; 360 v. 355. Seiz'd on his club] Alluding to Hercules's love for Omphale and Iole : Inter Ionicas calathum tenuisse puellas Diceris; & dominæ pertimuisse Minas. Deianira Herculi, Ovid. Ep. ix. L. 73, &c. Sly Hermes took Alcides in his toils, Arm'd with a club, and wrapt in lion's spoyls; Laid by his club, and with her distaff play'd. (Mr. Luck's Miscell. Poems, 1736. p. 163.) Vid. Diodori Siculi Rer. Antiquar. lib. 5. cap. 3. Montfaucon's Antiquity explained, vol. 1. part 2. b. 1. ch. 9. p. 141. Benedick (see Shakespear's Much ado about Nothing, vol. 1. p. 423.) speaking of Beatrice, says, "That she would have made Hercules turn spit, yea, and have cleft his club to have made the fire too." v. 366. Adjourn to tubs, at spring and fall] See Shakespear's Timon of Athens, act 4. vol. 5. p. 274, 275. with Mr. Warburton's Note: Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, edit. 4to, p. 38. That the stories told of some of the godly members are not slanders is certain, from Mr. Walker's accounts in his Hist. of Independency. He calls Harry Martyn, Colonel of a regiment of horse, and a regiment of whores. Colonel Scott, (the brewer's clerk) the demolisher of old palaces, (Lambeth) and deflowrer of young maidenheads before they are ripe and relates an intrigue of Sir Henry Mildmay's, that pretending himself taken with the wind colick, he got an opportunity to insinuate himself into a citizen's house in Cheapside, and tempted his wife, and had a shameful repulse: Hist. of Independency, part 2, p. 257. Nay, Cromwell himself, whose knowledge and veracity can scarce be disputed in this case, when he turned the Members out of doors, publickly called Harry Martyn and Sir Peter Wentworth, whoremasters: Echard's History of England, vol. 2. p. 275. "Twas he that gave our Senate purges, And all the Grandees o' th' Cabal Here comes Sir Henry Martyn, As good as ever pist ; This wenching beast Had whores at least A thousand on his list. 365 Collection of Loyal Songs, vol. 2, p. 7. v. 368. To Durty-Lane, and Little Sodom] Kimbolton, that rebellious Boanerges, (Cleveland upon the mixt Assembly, Works, p. 45.) It is remarkable that the Knight, a stickling Synodist, could not forbear acknowledging that Synod-men had sometimes strayed to Durty-lane and Little Sodom. The satire is more pungent out of his mouth. (Mr. B.) Qu.: whether by Little Sodom, he does not allude to what Mr. Walker (History of Independency, part 2, p. 257) calls "the new statesmen's new-erected Sodomes, and the Spinstries, at the Mulberry Garden at St. James's." v. 370. And take the ring at Madam- --] Stennet was the person whose name was dashed, says Sir Roger L'Estrange, (Key to Hudibras.) "Her husband was by profession a broom-man, (and lay-elder: see Key to a Burlesque Poem of Butler's, p. 12.) "She followed the laudable employment of bawding; and managed several intrigues for those brothers and sisters, whose purity consisted chiefly in the whiteness of their linen." She was of the same stamp with Widow Purecraft, in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, act 5, sc. 2. v. 371. 'Twas he that made St. Francis do, &c.] St. Francis was founder of the order of Franciscans in the Church of Rome, and Mr. Made 'em corvet, like Spanish jenets, 'Twas he that made Saint Francis do More than the Dev'l could tempt him to, Enamour'd of a wife of snow; 370 375 And though she were of rigid temper, He hung a garland on his engine. Quoth she,-If love have these effects, 380 Butler has scarce reached the extravagancy of the legend. "Bonaventure (says the learned Mr. Wharton, Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome, 1688, p. 109.) gives the following story of Saint Francis: The Devil putting on one night a handsome face, peeps into St. Francis's cell, and calls him out. The man of God presently knew by revelation that it was a trick of the Devil, who by that artifice tempted him to lust; yet he could not hinder the effect of it: for immediately a grievous temptation of the flesh seizeth on him. To shake off this, he strips himself naked, and begins to whip himself fiercely with his rope-Ha, brother ass (saith he) I will make you smart for your rebellious lust: I have taken from you my frock, because that is sacred, and must not be usurped by a lustful body: if you have a mind to go your ways in this naked condition, pray go. Then being animated by a wonderful fervour of spirit, he opens the door, runs out, and rolls his naked body in a great heap of snow: next he makes seven snow balls, and laying them before him, he thus bespeaks his outward man: Look you, this great snow-ball is your wife, those four are your two sons and two daughters, the other two are a man and a maid, which you must keep to wait on them; make haste and clothe them all, for they die with cold: but if you cannot provide for them all, then lay aside all thought of marriage, and serve God alone. Now see the merits of rolling in the snow, (saith Mr.Wharton) the tempter being conquered departs, and the saint returns in triumph to his cell." (See Misson, vol. 1. p. 271.) Less scrupulous were the Beguins of St. Francis's order, who held," that to kiss Why is't not damn'd, and interdicted, And sung, as out of tune, against, As Turk and Pope are by the Saints ? Quoth Hudibras,-These sad effects Plagues with prepost'rous appetite : This made the beauteous Queen of Crete 385 390 women, and to embrace them, provided they did not consummate the carnal sin, was highly meritorious." (See Baker's History of the Inquisition, chap. 5, p. 28.) The Cordeliers tell a story of their founder, St. Francis," that as he passed the streets in the dusk of the evening, he discovered a young fellow with a maid in a corner: upon which the good man (say they) lifted up his hands to heaven, with a secret thanksgiving that there was so much christian charity in the world: the innocence of the Saint, made him mistake the kiss of a lover for the salute of charity." (Spectator, No. 245.) Less charitable was Chalcocondilas, an European historian and christian, upon the custom of saluting ladies upon a visit, who reports," that it is an universal custom among the English, that upon an invitation to a friend's house, the person invited should in compliment lie with his neighbour's wife:" (see Mr. Baker's Reflections upon Learning, chap. 10.) v. 393. the beauteous Queen of Crete] Thus Ovid repre sents it, Epist. Heroid. Ep. 4, 57, 58. Pasiphaë mater decepto subdita tauro Enixa est utero, crimen onusque suo. vid. Ovid. de Arte Amandi, lib. 1. 295. Remed. Amor. 63. Taurus, a servant of Minos King of Crete, got his mistress Pasiphaë with child, (whence the infant was called Minotaurus) which occasioned this fable. |