They were upon hard duty still,
And ev'ry night stood sentinel,
To guard the magazine i' th' hose

From two-legg'd and from four-legg'd foes.
Thus clad and fortify'd, Sir Knight
From peaceful home set forth to fight.
But first with nimble active force
He got on th' outside of his horse;
For having but one stirrup ty'd
T'his saddle, on the further side,
It was so short, h' had much ado
To reach it with his desp'rate toe.

400

405

410

But, after many strains and heaves,

He got up to the saddle-eaves;

From whence he vaulted into th' seat,

With so much vigour, strength, and heat,

Of that which bore our valiant bumpkin.
The beast was sturdy, large, and tall,
With mouth of meal, and eyes of wall;
I would say eye; for h' had but one,
As most agree, though some say none.

425

He was well stay'd, and in his gate
Preserv'd a grave, majestic state.

At spur or switch no more he skipp'd,

Or mended pace, than Spaniard whipp'd: 430
And yet so fiery, he would bound,

As if he griev'd to touch the ground:

We shall not need to say what lack
Of leather was upon his back;

441

For that was hidden under pad,

And breech of knight gall'd full as bad.
His strutting ribs on both sides show'd
Like furrows he himself had plow'd ;
For underneath the skirt of pannel,
'Twixt ev'ry two there was a channel.
His draggling tail hung in the dirt,

Which on his rider he would flirt,

445

450

Still as his tender side he prick'd

With arm'd heel, or with unarm'd kick'd:
For Hudibras wore but one spur,

As wisely knowing, could he stir

453. The spur that arms one of the knight's heels, I take to be the light between the shadows which constitute his two feet; its rowel is near the right eye of the owl, and it appears to be on the off-side foot. The other foot is situate, apparently, behind it, and without a spur. would be a waste of time to go into a minute description of these minor circumstances: and when once the

It

To active trot one side of's horse,

The other would not hang an arse.

A squire he had, whose name was Ralph, That in th' adventure went his half. Though writers, for more stately tone, Do call him Ralpho, 'tis all one:

455

460

reader has become satisfied that the prototypes of the several characters of the Poem are rightly assigned, it will be a source of amusement to him to trace out those minutiæ for himself, of which there are multitudes which I omit to notice; in fact, he would scarcely fail to discover something new and pleasing on every repeated perusal.

457. If I have above given the origin of Hudibras's name, that of the name of Ralph, or Ralpho, may be assigned no less satisfactorily, though not so obviously: the letters which constitute it may, in fact, be seen (in light) within the sphere of the Squire's person in the moon, such as they are represented in

And when we can with metre safe,
We'll call him so; if not, plain Ralph;

(For rhyme the rudder is of verses,

With which, like ships, they steer their courses,)
An equal stock of wit and valour

465

He had laid in, by birth a tailor.

The mighty Tyrian queen, that gain'd

With subtle shreds a tract of land,

Did leave it, with a castle fair,

To his great ancestor, her heir:

From him descended cross-legg'd knights,
Fam'd for their faith, and warlike fights
Against the bloody cannibal,

Whom they destroy'd, both great and small.
This sturdy squire, he had, as well
As the bold Trojan knight, seen hell,
Not with a counterfeited pass
Of golden bough, but true gold-lace.

and developed in

Fig. 10.

470

475

RALPO

the Greek having the same power in pronunciation as the letter F, and the strokes of the letter L being intermixed with those of the p. The Squire would seem to be

His knowledge was not far behind
The Knight's but of another kind,
And he another way came by't:

Some call it gifts, and some new light :

He could deep mysteries unriddle,

As easily as thread a needle.

480

500

denominated a tailor, from the resemblance to a pair of shears, situate near his hand, as represented in

Fig. 11.

and formed by Hudibras's beard and the light in front of and upon Hudibras's face. The gold lace of 478 is made up of the marks in light on the neck and body of Hudibras; before conceived to be wheals arising from the blows of a cudgel.

500-558. Without stopping to point out all the likenesses referred to by the various passages put in italics from line 500 to 558, I will only observe, that in the letter