Hudibras

And that which was before, come after.
But those that write in rhyme, still make
The one verse for the other's sake;

v. 17. Till drawing blood o' th' dames, like witches] It is a vulgar
opinion, that the witch can have no power over the person so doing.
To this Shakespear alludes. (Henry the Sixth, First Part, act. 1. vol. 4.
p. 23.) Talbot upon Pucelle's appearing is made to speak as follows:

Here, here she comes;— I'll have a bout with thee;
Devil or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee:

Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch,

And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv'st.

Scots are like witches; do but whet your pen,

Scratch till the blood come, they'll not hurt you then.

Cleveland's Rebel Scot.

v. 23, 24, Some force whole regions, in despite — O' geography, to

change their site] A banter upon our dramatic poets, who bring distant

countries and regions upon our stage daily. In Shakespear one scene is

laid in England, and another in France, and the third back again

presently. The Canon makes this observation to the Curate, (Don

Quixote, vol. 2. chap. 21. p. 256.) in his dissertation upon plays. "What

shall I say of the regard to the time, in which those actions they represent

might, or ought to have happened, having seen a play, in which the first

act begins in Europe, the second in Asia, and the third ended in Afric;

probably, if there had been another act, they had carried it into America."

(See likewise Zelidaura Queen of Tartaria, a Dramatic Romance, act

3. p. 151.) "

For, one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think's sufficient at one time.

But we forget in what sad plight
We whilom left the captiv'd Knight,
And pensive Squire, both bruis'd in body,
And conjur❜d into safe custody:

Tir'd with dispute, and speaking Latin,
As well as basting, and bear-baiting,

v. 25, 26. Make former times shake hands with latter] There is a
famous anachronism in Virgil, where he lets about four hundred years
slip to fall foul upon poor Queen Dido: and to fix the cause of the irrecon-
cileable hatred betwixt Rome and Carthage. (Mr. S. of H.) Shakespear,
in his Marcius Coriolanus (vol. 6. p. 35.) has one of near six hundred
and fifty years, where he introduces the famous Menenius Agrippa, and
makes him speak the following words.

Menenius. "A letter for me? It gives me an estate of seven years'
health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the most
sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutick, and, to this preserva-
tive, of no better than a horse-drench.”—Menenius flourished anno U.
C. 260, about 492 years before the birth of our Saviour, Galen was born
in the year of our Lord 130, flourished about the year 155, or 160, and
lived to the year 200. See this bantered, Don Quixote, vol. 2. chap. 21.
p. 256. To which probably, in this and the two foregoing lines, he
had an eye.

v. 32.――whilom] Formerly, or some time ago, altered to lately
1674, restored 1704.

v. 40. dog-bolt] "Of this word (says Dr. Johnson), I know not the
meaning, unless it be, that when meal or flour is sifted or bolted to a
certain degree, the coarser part is called dog-bolt, or flour for
dogs." (ED.)

v. 46. ycleped fame] Ycleped, called or named; the word is often
used in Chaucer.

He may be clep'd a god for his miracles.

Chaucer's Knight's Tale, Works, folio, 5th edit. 1602. The Man of Law's
Tale, ibid. folio 20. The Squire's Tale, folio 24, &c. And often by Sir
John Maundeville, Shakespear, and other English writers.

And desperate of any course

To free himself by wit or force;

His only solace was, that now

His dog-bolt fortune was so low,

That either it must quickly end,

Or turn about again, and mend;

In which he found th' event, no less

Than other times, beside his

guess.

There is a tall long-sided dame,

(But wond'rous light) ycleped Fame,
That like a thin camelion boards

Herself on air, and eats her words :

.47, 48. That like a thin camelion boards-Herself on air, &c.]
The simile is very just, as alluding to the general notion of the camelion.

As the camelion, who is known

To have no colours of his own;

But borrows from his neighbour's hue,

His white or black, his green or blue.

Mr. Prior.

So Fame represents herself, as white or black, false or true, as she is

disposed. Mr. Gay, in his fable of the Spaniel and Camelion, has the

following lines:

How different is thy case and mine!

With men at least you sup and dine,

Whilst I, condemn'd to thinnest fare,

Like those I flatter'd, feed on air.

Sir Tho. Browne (see Vulgar Errours, book 3. chap. 21.) has confuted
this vulgar notion. He informs us, that Bellonius (Comm. in Ocell. Lucan.)
not only affirms, that the camelion feeds on flies, caterpillars, beetles,
and other insects, but upon embowelling, he found these animals in their
bellies whereto (says he) we might add the experimental decisions of
Peireschius, and the learned Emanuel Vizzanius, on that camelion which
had been observed to drink water, and delight to feed on meal-worms.
The same account we have in the description of the camelion, in a let-
ter from Dr. Pocock, at Aleppo, to Mr. Edward Greaves, Life of Pocock,
prefixed to his Theological Works, by Dr. Twells, p. 4. Philosophical
Transactions, vol. 3. numb. 49. p. 992. Vid. Broddei Miscel. lib. 10. cap.

21.

Upon her shoulders wings she wears

Like hanging sleeves, lin'd through with ears, 50
And eyes, and tongues, as poets list,
Made good by deep mythologist.

With these she through the welkin flies,
And sometimes carries truth, oft lies;
With letters hung like eastern pigeons,
And Mercuries of furthest regions;

Gruteri Fax. Arti. tom. 2. p. 562. Lord Bacon's Nat. Hist. cent.

4. s. 360. pag. 80. See fabulous accounts of the camelion, Auli Gellii

Noct. Attic. lib. 10. cap. 12. Mr. Sandys's Notes upon the 15th book of

Ovid's Metamorph. p. 287. edit. 1640. Sir John Maundeville's Voyages

and Travels, ed. 1727, p. 351. They are eaten in Cochin-China, accor-

ding to Christopher Borri. See Churchill's Voyages, 2d vol. 2d edition,

1732, p. 726. Purchase his Pilgrims, part 2, p. 954.

v. 48. and eats her words] The beauty of this, consists in

the double meaning; the first alludes to Fame's living on report; the

second is an insinuation, that if a report is narrowly enquired into, and

traced up to the original author, it is made to contradict itself. (Mr.W.)

Ibid. In the errata to the second edition of 1664, her words is cor-

rected (perhaps by the Author, himself) to your words; an emendation

fatal to the recondite beauties which the ingenuity of Bishop Warburton

has discovered in this line. (ED.)

v. 49. Upon her shoulders wings she wears, &c.] Alluding to Virgil's

description of Fame, Æn. 4, 180, &c.

Pedibus celerem, et pernicibus alis ;

Monstrum horrendum, ingens: cui quot sunt corpore pluma,

Tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu,

Tot linguæ, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures.

Swift in her walk, more swift her winged haste,-

A monstrous phantom, horrible and vast.

As many plumes as raise her lofty flight,

So many piercing eyes enlarge her sight;

Millions of opening mouths to Fame belong,

And every mouth is furnish'd with a tongue;

And round with list'ning ears the flying plague

v. 53. She through the welkin flies]

Nocte volat cæli medio. Virgil. Æn. iv. 184.

}

is hung..

Mr. Dryden.

Diurnals writ for regulation

Of lying, to inform the nation;

And by their public use to bring down
The rate of whetstones in the kingdom.

Welkin or sky, as appears from many passages in Chaucer, Third Book
of Fame; Spenser's Faerie Queene, vol. 2. book 3. canto 9. s. 11. p.
490. Shakespear's Tempest, act 1. and many other parts of his works.
Higden's Polychronicon, by Treviza, fol. 194. and many other writers.
See Welken, Junii Etymologic. Anglican. Oxon. 1743.

v. 54. And sometimes carries truth, oft lies]

Tam ficti pravique tenax, quam nuntia veri.

Virgil. Æn. iv. 188.

▾. 55. With letters hung like eastern pigeons] Dr. Heylin (Cosmo-

graphy, 5th edit. 1670. p. 786.) speaking of the caravans of Bagdat, ob-

serves, "That to communicate the success of their business to the place

from whence they came, they make use of pigeons, which is done after

this manner. When the hen pigeon sitteth, or hath any young, they

take the cock, and set him in an open cage: when they have travelled a

day's journey, they let him go at liberty, and he straight flyeth home to

his mate: when they have trained him from one place to another, and

there be occasion to send any advertisements, they tie a letter about one