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.
For 't has been held by many, that
As Montaigne, playing with his cat,
Complains she thought him but an ass,
Much more she would Sir Hudibras;

35

(For that's the name our valiant Knight To all his challenges did write)

40

But they're mistaken very much;

'Tis plain enough he was not 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;

45

v. 55. 56. This is the property of a pedantic coxcomb, who prates most learnedly amongst illiterate persons, and makes a mighty pother about books and

But much of either would afford

To many that had not a word.

For Hebrew roots, altho' they're found

To flourish most in barren ground,

60

He had such plenty as suffic'd

To make some think him circumcis'd;
And truly so he was, perhaps,

Not as a proselyte, but for claps.
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;

65

languages there, where he is sure to be admired, though not understood.

v. 62.] Here again is an alteration without any amendment; for the following lines,

And truly so he was, perhaps,

Not as a proselyte, but for claps,

are thus changed in the editions of 1674, 1684, 1689, 1694, 1700,

And truly so perhaps he was,

'Tis many a pious Christian's case.

Restored in the edition of 1704.

A calf an alderman, a goose a justice,

And rooks Committee-men 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;

75

80

85

v. 75. Such was Alderman Pennington, who sent a person to Newgate for singing (what he called) a malignant psalm.

Ib. Lord Clarendon observes, "That after the "declaration of No more Addresses to the King, they "who were not above the condition of ordinary con" stables six or seven years before, were now the jus"tices of the peace." Dr. Bruno Ryves informs us, That the town of Chelmsford in Essex was govern❝ed, at the beginning of the Rebellion, by a tinker, two coblers, two tailors, and two pedlars.'

v. 76. In the several counties, e pecially the Associated ones, (Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire) which sided with the parliament, committees were erected of such men as were for the Good Cause, as they called it, who had. authority, from the members of the two Houses at Westminster, to fine and imprison whom they pleased.

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.

90

4

But, when he pleas'd to show't, his speech,

In loftiness of sound, was rich;

A Babylonish dialect,

Which learned pedants much affect;

It was a party-colour'd dress

Of patch'd and py-ball'd languages;
'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin,
Like fustian heretofore on sattin;
It had an old promiscuous tone,

As if h'had talk'd three parts in one;

Which made some think, when he did gabble,
Th' had heard three labourers of Babel,

Or Cerberus himself pronounce

A leash of languages at once.

This he as volubly would vent,

95

100

105

As if his stock would ne'er be spent:
And truly, to support that charge,
He had supplies as vast and large;
For he could coin or counterfeit
New words, with little or no wit;

110

V. 109.] The Presbyterians coined a great number, such as Outgoings, Carryings-on, Nothingness, Workings out, Gospel-waking-times, &c. which we

Words so debas'd and hard, no stone

Was hard enough to touch them on;

And when with hasty noise he spoke 'em,
The ignorant for current took 'em,

That had the orator, who once

115

Did fill his mouth with pebble stones

When he harangu'd, but known his phrase,
He would have us'd no other ways.

In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater;
For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve by sines and tangents straight
If bread or butter wanted weight;

120

And wisely tell what hour o' th' day

125

The clock does strike, by Algebra.
Beside, he was a shrewd philosopher,

And had read ev'ry text and gloss over;

shall meet with hereafter in the speeches of the Knight and Squire, and others, in this Poem; for which they are bantered by Sir John Birkenhead.

V. 115. This and the three following lines not in the two first editions of 1664, but added in the edit. 1674. Demosthenes is here meant, who had a defect in his speech.

V. 120. An eminent Danish mathematician.

Ib. William Lilly, the famous astrologer of those times.