5

That keep their Confciences in Cafes,
As Fidlers do their Crowds and Bases;
Ne'er to be us'd but when the'yr bent
To play a Fit for Argument:
Make true and false, unjust and just,
10 Of no Ufe but to be difcuft;
Dispute and fet a Paradox,

15

Like a ftrait Boot upon the Stocks,
And ftretch it more unmercifully,
Than Helmont, Montaign, White or Tully.
So th' ancient Stoicks in their Porch,
With fierce Dispute maintain'd their Church,
Beat out their Brains in Fight and Study,
that Virtue is a Body;

Το

prove

That Bonum is an Animal,

20 Made good with ftout Polemique Brawl:

. 14. Mountaygn or Mountaingand Tully.] in all Editions to 1704. inclus. alter'd to Montaign and Lully, in 1710. or 1716,

. 15. So th' ancient Stoicks in their Porch, &c.] * In Porticu (Stoicorum Schola Athenis) Difcipulorum feditionibus mille Quadrin genti triginta Cives interfecti funt. Diog. Laert. in vita Zenonis, p. 383. Thofe old Virtuofas were better Proficients in those Exercifes, than the modern, who feldom improve higher than Cuffing and Kicking." Dr. Middleton obferves, (Life of Cicero, 4t edit. v. 2. P. 540.) That the Stoics embrac'd all their Doctrines as so many fixt and immutable Truths, from which it was infamous to depart : and by making this their Point of Honour, held all their Difciples in an inviolable Attachment to them."

. 19. That Bonum is an Animal ] * Bonum is fuch a kind of Animal, as our modern Virtuofi from Don Quixote, will have Windmills under Sail to be. The fame Authors are of Opinion, that all Ships are Fishes while they are a-float; but when they are run on Ground, or laid up in the Dock, become Ships again." ." Some have been fo whimfical, as to think, that the Sea, and Rivers are Animals. Generaliter caufa efficiens alluvionis conftituti poteft motus aquæ, quem in mari ac fluminibus nunquam deficere videmus. Senec. vi. Nat. qu. 7. cujus principium anima ftatuitur. Ariftot. 1. De Part. Anim. 1. Senec. vi. Nat. Quæft. 16. ut propterea flumina et mare animalia atuerit poft veteres, Hieron. Cardan. lib. 2. de fubtilitate, quem

irridet

In which, fome Hundreds on the Place
Were flain outright, and many a Face
Retrench'd of Nofe, and Eyes, and Beard,
To maintain what their Sect averr'd.-

25 All which the Knight and Squire in Wrath
Had like t' have fuffer'd for their Faith:
Each striving to make good his own,
As by the Sequel fhall be fhown.

The Sun had long fince in the Lap

30 Of Thetis, taken out his Nap,

And like a Lobster boyl'd, the Morn
From black to red began to turn:

When Hudibras, whom Thoughts and Aking, 'Twixt fleeping kept, all Night, and waking, 35 Began to rub his drowsy Eyes,

And from his Couch prepar'd to rise,
Refolving to dispatch the Deed

He vow'd to do, with trufty Speed.

But first, with knocking loud, and bawling, 40 He rouz'd the Squire, in Truckle lolling :

irridet Scaliger, &c. vid. Johannis Gryphiandri J. C. de Infulis, cap. 18. p. 246.

. 29, 30. The Sun had long fince in the Lap-Of Thetis, taken out his Nap,]

-Aut ubi pallida furget

Tithoni croceum linquens Aurora cubile,

Virgilii Georgic. lib. 1. 446, 447.

Unde venit Titan, & Nox ubi Sidera condit.

Lucan. Pharfal. 1. 15.

As far as Phoebus firft doth rife,

Until in Thetis' Lap be lies.

Sir Arthur Gorges.

. 40. He rouz'd the Squire, in Truckle lolling.] Several of the books in Homer's Iliad, and Odysey, begin with defcribing the Morning: fo alfo does Mr. Butler take care to let the World know at what time of the Day (which he exactly describes) these momentous Actions of his Hero, were tranfacted: the Morning's Approach, the Knight's rifing, and rouzing up his Squire, are humorously defcribed: The Poet feems to have had in his eye the like

paffage

And, after many Circumftances,
Which vulgar Authors in Romances
Do use to spend their Time and Wits on,
To make impertinent Description,
45 They got (with much ado) to Horse,
And to the Castle bent their Courfe,
In which he to the Dame before
To fuffer Whipping duty fwore;
Where now arriv'd, and half unharnest,
50 To carry on the Work in earnest,

He ftopp'd, and paus'd upon the fudden,
And with a serious Forehead plodding,
Sprung a new Scruple in his Head,
Which firft he scratch'd, and after sed;
55 Whether it be direct infringing

An Oath, if I should wave this fwinging,

paffage in Don Quixote: " Scarce had the Silver Morn given bright Phabus leave, with the Ardour of his burning Rays, to dry the "liquid Pearls on his Golden Locks, when Don Quixote fhaking "off Sloth from his drowsy Members, rose up, and called Sancho his Squire, that ftill lay fnorting; which Don Quixote feeing, be"fore he could wake him, he faid, O happy Thou above all that "live upon the face of the Earth! that without Envy, or being "envied, fleepeft with a quiet Breaft! neither perfecuted by En "chanters, or frighted by Enchantments.-b. 2. cap. 20. (Mr. B.) 48.-Whipping duely fwore :] in the two first editions.

.

.53. Sprung a new Scruple in his Head.] When we are in the higheft expectation, to fee this defperate whipping perform'd by the Knight, Behold! a new Scruple, whether he might not forfooth, break his Oath. This is exactly conformable to the Knight's Character and expected from one who barely pretended to a fcrupu. lous and tender Conscience. (Mr. B.)

*. 55, 56. Whether it be direct infringing—An Oath, If I should wave this fwinging.] This Dialogue between Hudibras and Ralph fets before us the Hypocrify and Villany of all parties of the Rebels, with regard to Oaths; what equivocations and evafions they made ufe of, to account for the many Perjuries they were daily guilty of, and the several Oaths they readily took, and as readily broke, merely as they found it fuited their Intereft, appears from *. 107, &c, and y. 377, &c. of this Canto, and part 3. can. 3.

2. 5.74