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By which the virtuosi try

The magnitude of ev'ry lye,

Cast up to what it does amount,

And place the bigg'st to your account?
That all those stories that are laid

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Too truly to you, and those made,
Are now still charg'd upon your score,
And lesser authors nam'd no more.
Alas! that faculty betrays
Those soonest it designs to raise ;
And all your vain renown will spoil,
As guns o'ercharg'd the more recoil.
Though he that has but impudence,
To all things has a fair pretence;
And put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim :

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Though you have try'd that nothing's borne

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HUDIBRAS.

PART III.

CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Knight and Squire resolve, at once,
The one the other to renounce.

They both approach the Lady's Bower;

The Squire t'inform, the Knight to woo her.
She treats them with a Masquerade,
By Furies and Hobgoblins made;

From which the Squire conveys the Knight,
And steals him from himself, by Night.

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MS true, no lover has that pow'r T'enforce a desperate amour, As he that has two strings t' his bow, And burns for love and money too; For then he's brave and resolute, Disdains to render in his suit,

Has all his flames and raptures double,

And hangs or drowns with half the trouble;
While those who sillily pursue,

The simple, downright way, and true,
Make as unlucky applications,

And steer against the stream their passions.

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Some forge their mistresses of stars,
And when the ladies prové avetse,
And a more untoward to be won
Than by CALIGULA the Moon,
Cry out upon the stars, for doing
Iil offices to cross their wooing;

When only by themselves they're hindred,
For trusting those they made her kindred;
And still, the harsher and hide-bounder
The damsels prove, become the fonder.
For what mad lover ever dy'd

To gain a soft and gentle bride?
Or for a lady tender-liearted,

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In purling streams or hemp departed?
Leap'd headlong int' Elysium,

Through th' windows of a dazzling room?
But for some cross, ili-natur'd dame,

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The am'rous fly, burnt in his flame.
This to the Knight could be no news,
With all mankind so much in use;
Who therefore took the wiser course,
To make the most of his amours,
Resolv'd to try all sorts of ways,
As follows in due time and place.

No sooner was the bloody fight,
Between the Wizard and the Knight,
With all th' appurtenances, over,
But he relaps'd again t' a lover;

As he was always wont to do,
When h' had discomfited a foe;
And us'd the only antique bphilters,
Deriv'd from old heroic tilters.

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But now triumphant, and victorious,

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He held thatchievement was too glorious

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