xxvi THE LIFE AND WORKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER.

Juan," are both fragments; and that, in reference to the first of these, at least, we have not the most distant data to guide us in conjecturing what was the ultimate plan or purpose of the poet, beyond, at least, the very probable conjecture that his vigorous and unsparing satire would have swept at last into the ranks of the ungrateful cavaliers. As it is, "Hudibras" now stands before us—not a sublime, unfinished temple consecrated to deities, whose worship was never to be celebrated therein-but a great, grotesque, nameless structure, reared half in sport and half in earnest, which excites in the minds of those who walk in it rather laughter than love, rather wonder than satisfaction, and which, after all the explanations given, is far more a problem than a poem.

HUDIBRAS,

IN THREE PARTS,

WRITTEN IN

THE TIME OF THE LATE WARS.

PART 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' adventure of the Bear and Fiddle
Is sung, but breaks off in the middle.

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,

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

Whose honesty they all durst swear for,
Tho' not a man of them knew wherefore;
When Gospel-trumpeter, surrounded
With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded;
And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,

Was beat with fist instead of a stick :
Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
And out he rode a-colonelling.1

A wight he was whose very sight would
Entitle him Mirror of Knighthood,2
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 chartel3 or for warrant ;
Great on the bench, great in the saddle,
That could as well bind o'er as swaddle.1
Mighty he was at both of these,
And styled 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;
But, howsoe'er they make a pother,
The diff'rence was so small, his brain
Outweigh'd his rage but half a grain;
Which made some take him for a tool

That knaves do work with, call'd a Fool.

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'He rode a-colonelling:' the Knight (if Sir Samuel Luke was Mr Butler's hero) was not only a Colonel in the Parliament army, but also Scoutmastergeneral in the counties of Bedford, Surrey, &c.-2 Mirror of Knighthood:' there was a book so called; see Don Quixote, vol. i. c. 6, p. 48.-3 Either for chartel' chartel signifies a letter of defiance or challenge to a duel 4 'Swaddle:' swaddle, bang, cudgel, or drub.

For 't has been held by many, that
As Montaigne,1 playing with his cat,
Complains she thought him but an ass,
Much more she would Sir HUDIBRAS 2
(For that's the name our valiant Knight
To all his challenges did write):
But they're mistaken very much,
'Tis plain enough he was no such.
We grant, altho' he had much wit,
H' was very shy of using it,
As being loath to wear it out,
And therefore bore it not about,
Unless on holidays or so,

As men their best apparel do.

Beside, 'tis known he could speak Greek
As naturally as pigs squeak;

That Latin was no more difficile,
Than to a blackbird 'tis to whistle :
Being rich in both, he never scanted
His bounty unto such as wanted ;
But much of either would afford
To many that had not one word.
For Hebrew roots, altho' they're found
To flourish most in barren ground,

He had such plenty as sufficed

To make some think him circumcised:

'As Montaigne :' 'When I am playing with my cat,' says Montaigne, Essays, book ii. chap. 12, 'who knows whether she hath more sport in dallying with me than I have in gaming with her? We entertain one another with mutual apish tricks,' &c.—2 ‹ Much more she would Sir Hudibras:' Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop of St Asaph, in his British History, makes mention of a British King of this name, who lived about the time of Solomon, and reigned thirty-nine years; he composed all dissensions among his people, and built Kaerlem or Canterbury, Kaerguen or Winchester, and the town of Paladur, now Shaftesbury. Mr Butler seems rather to allude to one of Spencer's knights: see Fairy Queen, book ii. canto 2, § 17.

And truly so perhaps he was,
"Tis many a pious Christian's case.
He was in logic a great critic,
Profoundly skill'd in analytic :
He could distinguish, and divide

A hair 'twixt south and south-west side;
On either which he would dispute,
Confute, change hands, and still confute.
He'd undertake to prove, by force
Of argument, a man's no horse;
He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl,
And that a lord may be an owl,

A calf an alderman, a goose a justice,
And rooks committee-men1 and trustees.
He'd run in debt by disputation,

And pay with ratiocination.

All this by syllogism, true

In mood and figure, he would do.
For rhetoric, he could not ope

His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he happen'd to break off
I' th' middle of his speech, or cough,
H' had hard words ready to show why,
And tell what rules he did it by ;
Else, when with greatest art he spoke,
You'd think he talk'd like other folk:

For all a rhetorician's rules

Teach nothing but to name his tools.

But, when he pleased to show't, his speech
In loftiness of sound was rich;

A Babylonish dialect,

;

Which learned pedants much affect ;

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1 'Committee-men:' alluding to the Committees appointed by the Parliament, in certain counties, to fine and imprison.