5

That keep their Consciences in Cases,
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 Use but to be discuft ;

Dispute and set a Paradox,
Like a strait Boot upon the Stocks,
And stretch it more unmercifully,

Than Helmont, Montaign, White or Tully. 15 So th' ancient Stoicks in their Porch,

With fierce Dispute maintain'd their Church,
Beat out their Brains in Fight and Study,
To prove that Virtue is a Body ;

That Bonum is an Animal,
20 Made good with stout Polemique Brawl:

*. 14. Mountaygn or Mountaing - and 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 Portica (Stoicorum Schola Athenis) Difcipulorum feditionibus mille Quadrina genti triginta Cives interfe&ti funt. Diog. Laert. in vita Zenonis, p. 383. Those old Virtuofas were better Proficients in those Exercises, than the modern, who feldom improve higher than Cuffing and Kicking.” Dr. Middleton observes, (Life of Cicero, 4o 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: ço and by making this their Point of Honour, held all their Dif

ciples in an inviolable Attachment to them.”

X. 19. That Bonum is an Animal ] * Bonum is such 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,

up in the Dock, become Ships again.” Some have been so whimsical, as to think, that the Sea, and Rivers are Animals. Generaliter causa efficiens alluvionis conftituti potest motus aquæ, quem in mari ac fluminibus nunquam deficere videmus. Senec. vi. Nat. qu. 7. cujus principium anima ftatuitur. Aristot. 1. De Part. Anim. 1. Senec. vi. Nat. Quæft. 16. ut propterea flumina et mare animalia Ratuerit poft veteres, Hieron. Cardan. lib. 2. de subtilitate, quem

In which, fome Hundreds on the Place
Were Nain outright, and many a Face
Retrench'd of Nose, and Eyes, and Beard,

To maintain what their SeEt averr'd.
25 All which the Knight and Squire in Wrath

Had like t' have suffer'd for their Faith :
Each striving to make good his own,
As by the Sequel shall be shown.

The Sun had long since 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 Neeping kept, all Night, and waking, 35 Began to rub his drowsy Eyes,

And from his Couch prepar'd to rise,
Resolving to dispatch the Deed
He vow'd to do, with trusty Speed.

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

irridet Scaliger, &c. vid. Jobannis Gryphiandri J. C. de Insulis, cap. 18. p. 246.

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

Aut ubi pallida surget
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 first doth rise,
Until in Thetis' Lap he 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 describing the Morning: fo also 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 transacted : the Morning's Approach, the Knight's rifing, and rouzing up his Squire, are humorgully described : The Poet seems to have had in his eyė the like

passage

And, after many Circumstances,
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 Course,
In which he to the Dame before
To suffer Whipping duty swore ;

Where now arriv'd, and half unharneft, 50 To carry on the Work in earnest,

He stopp'd, and paus’d upon the sudden,
And with a serious Forehead plodding,
Sprung a new Scruple in his Head,

Which first he scratch'd, and after sed; 55 Whether it be direct infringing

An Oath, if I should wave this swinging,

passage in Don Quixote : " Scarce had the Silver Morn given bright & Phoebus leave, with the Ardour of his burning Rays, to dry che “ liquid. Pearls on his Golden Locks, when Don Quixote Thaking « off Sloth from his drowsy Members, rose up, and called Sancho his

Squire, that ftill lay snorting ; which Don Quixote seeing, be. “ fore he could wake him, he said, O happy Thou above all that “ live upon the face of the Earth! that without Envy, or being “ envied, sleepest with a quiet Breaft! neither persecuted by Em “ chanters, or frighted by Encbantments.-b. z. cap. 20.(Mr. Bol

. 48. Whipping duely fwore :) in the two first editions *

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

5.55, 56. Whether it be direct infringing-An Oath, If I Jould wave tbis

swinging.) This Dialogue between Hudibras and Ralph sets before us the Hypocrisy and Villany of all parties of the Rebels, with regard to Oaths; what equivocations and evasions they made use 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 suited their Interest, appears from *. 107, &c, and %. 377, &c. of this Canto, and part 3. can. 3.