PART THE SECOND.

CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The knight, by damnable magician,
Being cast illegally in prison:

Love brings his action on the case,
And lays it upon Hudibras.
How he receives the lady's visit,

And cunningly solicits his suit,
Which she defers; yet, on parole,
Redeems him from th' inchanted hole.

BUT now, t' observe romantic method,
Let bloody steel a while be sheathed;
And all those harsh and rugged sounds
Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds,
Exchang'd to Love's more gentle style,
To let our reader breathe a while:

Have we forgot 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,

And desperate of any course,

To free himself by wit or force;

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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 wondrous light,) ycleped Fame,

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45

46. Figure 25 gives a view of Fame, as she appears in

That like a thin cameleon boards
Herself on air, and eats her words:
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;

Two trumpets she does sound at once,

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But both of clean contrary tones ;

And therefore vulgar authors name
The one good, t' other evil fume.

This tattling gossip knew too well,
What mischief Hudibras befel;
And straight the spiteful tidings bears
Of all, to th' unkind widow's ears.
Democritus ne'er laugh'd so loud,

To see bauds carted through the croud,

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strong light, with her wings and trumpets, on the south side of the moon, but facing the north, and her head towards the right of the north. Her mythological character has a reference to the tides, the varied appearances of which are connected with the changes of the moon, the subject of the Poem ; and are the bearers of news from all parts of the world.

Or funerals with stately pomp,
March slowly on in solemn dump,
As she laugh'd out, until her back,
As well as sides, was like to crack.
She vow'd she would go see the sight,
And visit the distressed knight;

To do the office of a neighbour,
And be a gossip at his labour;

And from his wooden jail, the stocks,
To set at large his fetter-locks,

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And by exchange, parole, or ransom,

To free him from th' inchanted mansion.
This b'ing resolv'd she call'd for hood
And usher, implements abroad

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Which ladies wear, besides a slender
Young waiting damsel to attend her.
All which appearing, on she went,
To find the knight in limbo pent.
And 'twas not long before she found

Him, and his stout squire, in the pound;
Both coupled in inchanted tether,

By farther leg behind together:

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90. The prototype of the widow, above drawn in fig. 23, is situate near the shears or midwife's forceps, above also drawn in fig. 11.

98. In fig. 26 is seen the widow's waiting-damsel, as situate in the moon, (the north being placed on the left

For as he sat upon his rump,

His head like one in doleful dump,
Between his knees, his hands apply'd
Unto his ears on either side;
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,

When in their dreadful shapes th'

appear.

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No sooner did the knight perceive her, 115

But straight he fell into a fever,