To veer, and tack, and steer a cause,
Against the weather-gage of laws,
And ring the changes upon cases,
As plain as noses upon faces,
As you have well instructed me,

;

For which you 'ave earn'd (here 'tis) your fee.
I long to practise your advice,
And try the subtle artifice
To bait a letter, as you bid.'
As, not long after, thus he did;
For, having pump'd up all his wit,
And hum'd upon it, thus he writ.

AN HEROICAL EPISTLE

OF

HUDIBRAS TO HIS LADY.

'I WHO was once as great as Cæsar,
Am now reduc'd to Nebuchadnezzar ;
And from as fam'd a conqueror

As ever took degree in war,
Or did his exercise in battle,

By you turn'd out to grass with cattle:
For since I am denied access
To all my earthly happiness,
Am fallen from the paradise

Of your good graces, and fair eyes;

BB

Lost to the world, and you, I'm sent

To everlasting banishment,

Where all the hopes I had to 'ave won
Your heart, b'ing dash'd, will break my own.
'Yet if you were not so severe
To pass your doom before you hear,
You'd find, upon my just defence,
How much ye 'ave wrong'd my innocence.
That once I made a vow to you,
Which yet is unperform'd, 'tis true;
But not, because it is unpaid,
"Tis violated, though delay'd:
Or, if it were, it is no fault,

So heinous as you'd have it thought;
To undergo the loss of ears,
Like vulgar hackney perjurers :

For there's a difference in the case,

Between the noble and the base;

Who always are observ'd to 'ave done 't

Upon as different an account;

The one for great and weighty cause,

To salve, in honour, ugly flaws;

For none are like to do it sooner,

Than those who 're nicest of their honour :

The other, for base gain and pay,

Forswear and perjure by the day,
And make the exposing and retailing
Their souls, and consciences, a calling.
'It is no scandal nor aspersion,

Upon a great and noble person,
To say he naturally abhorr'd

The' old-fashion'd trick to keep his word,
Though 'tis perfidiousness and shame,
In meaner men, to do the same :

THE ARGUMENT.

It is no scandal nor aspersion
Upon a great and noble person,
To say he naturally abhorr'd

The old-fashioned trick to keep his word;
Though 'tis perfidiousness and shame

In meaner men to do the same.

For to be able to forget,

Is found more useful to the great
Than gout, or deafness, or bad eyes,
To make 'em pass for wondrous wise.
But though the law, on perjurers,
Inflicts the forfeiture of ears,
It is not just, that does exempt
The guilty, and punish the' innocent;
To make the ears repair the wrong
Committed by the' ungovern'd tongue;
And, when one member is forsworn,
Another to be cropt or torn.
And if you should, as you design,
By course of law, recover mine,
You're like, if you consider right,
To gain but little honour by't."
For he that for his lady's sake
Lays down his life, or limbs, at stake,
Does not so much deserve her favour,
As he that pawns his soul to have her.
This ye 'ave acknowledg'd I have done,
Although you now disdain to own;
But sentence what you rather ought
To' esteem good service than a fault.
Besides, oaths are not bound to bear
That literal sense the words infer;
But, by the practice of the age,
Are to be judg'd how far th' engage;
And where the sense by custom's checkt,
Are found void and of none effect;
For no man takes or keeps a vow,
But just as he sees others do;
Nor are th' oblig'd to be so brittle,
As not to yield and bow a little :