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HU DIBRA S.

PART THE FIRST.

CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

Sir Hudibras his passing worth,
The manner how he sally'd forth;
His arms and equipage are shown;
His horse's virtues and his own.

Th' adventures of the Bear and Fiddle
sung, but breaks off in the middle.

Is

WHEN civil dudgeon first grew high,
And men fell out they knew not why:
When hard words, jealousies, and fears,
Set folks together by the ears,

HUDIBRAS.

It has been a common practice of late to decorate books with engravings, referable to the scenes or incidents described in them. It has been adopted in modern books for ornament chiefly; but might be applied to older

And made them fight, like mad or drunk,
For Dame Religion as for punk;

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authors, not with a view to ornament merely, but for the useful purpose of illustrating their meaning; as the characters brought into action by those authors being exposed by those means, to the scrutiny of the eye, would become familiar to us, without the necessity of long explanatory comments. Some plain examples of the utility of this method are hereinafter exhibited; the short notes which accompany the figures being rather calculated to save a little time and trouble to the reader, than necessary to his understanding the subjects in the light intended, it being supposed that the figures themselves will answer that purpose much more effectually.

The first composition submitted to examination under the view proposed shall be the Poem of Hudibras, of which an excellent judge of literary merit has given the following character: "that it abounds more than any "other in strokes of just and inimitable wit; and yet that "it is surprizing how much erudition is introduced with "so good a grace, into a work of such pleasantry and hu"6 mour; it being, perhaps, one of the most learned com"positions that is to be found in any language. The

"

advantage which the royal cause received from this "Poem, in exposing the fanaticism and false pretensions "of the former parliamentary party, was prodigious. The " King himself had so good a taste, as to be highly pleased "with the merit of the work, and had even got a great " part of it by heart." To which character I take occasion to make this short addition, that Hudibras abounds with

Whose honesty they all durst swear for, Though not a man of them knew wherefore:

topics of science, of a reach wholly beside, and far beyond what, in these latter times, has been apprehended by any body.

Supposing the reader to have refreshed his memory by running his eye over a few of the first pages of this admirable Poem, I would beg him to examine, with attention, "the Map of the Moon as seen through a Telescope," which forms the frontispiece of this volume; and would ask him, when he has turned it upside down, or the north side downwards, whether he does not recognize a resemblance of the hero of the Poem, the Knight Hudibras himself on one side of the engraving, and his no less renowned Squire, Ralph, on the other; such as they are represented in the two figures marked 1 and 2. Fig. 1.

When gospel-trumpeter, surrounded
With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded, 10

Fig. 2.

If at first he should have any doubt of this, I am well satisfied that a little farther attention, or the contemplation and comparison of a few others of the figures hereafter inserted, will not fail to convince him, that one of the scenes of action of this Poem is, in truth, the moon.

In order to avoid a multiplication of notes, and at the same time to assist a comparison of the various figures in the moon, with the copies therefrom hereafter given, as forming the characters of the Poem, I shall content myself, for the most part, with printing certain passages of the text in italics; but in case the reader should not, merely by a comparison of the figures with the moon, and

And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,

Was beat with fist instead of a stick :
Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
And out he rode a-colonelling.

A wight he was, whose very sight would 15 Intitle him, Mirrour of knighthood;

That never bow'd his stubborn knee
To any thing but chivalry;

Nor put up blow, but that which laid
Right worshipful on shoulder-blade:
Chief of domestic knights and errant,
Either for chartel or for warrant:

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Great on the bench, great in the saddle,

That could as well bind o'er as swaddle:

Mighty he was at both of these,

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And styl❜d of war, as well as peace.

(So some rats of amphibious nature,
Are either for the land or water.)

But here our authors make a doubt,
Whether he were more wise or stout.
Some hold the one, and some the other:

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by the aid of that method of printing, conceive the subject at first under the aspect intended, it may be expedient to point out, by notes, other circumstances that go to confirm the correctness of the general suggestion submitted to him; for instance, in the terms "out he rode," (line 13,) and "errant," (line 21,) besides the intimation they con