And in their way attended on

By magistrates of every town ;
And, all respect and charges paid,
They're to their ancient seats conveyed.
825 Now if you'll venture, for my sake,
To try the toughness of your back,
And suffer, as the rest have done,
The laying of a whipping on,
And may you prosper in your suit,
830 As you with equal vigour do 't,
I here engage to be your bail,
And free you from th' unknightly jail.
But since our sex's modesty

Will not allow I should be by,
835 Bring me, on oath, a fair account,
And honour to, when you have done 't:
And I'll admit you to the place
You claim as due in my good grace.
If matrimony and hanging go
840 By dest'ny, why not whipping too?
What medicine else can cure the fits
Of lovers, when they lose their wits?
Love is a boy, by poets styled,

Then spare the rod, and spoil the child;
845 A Persian emperor whipped his grannam
The sea, his mother Venus came on;
And hence some reverend men approve
Of rosemary in making love.

As skilful coopers hoop their tubs
850 With Lydian and with Phrygian dubs,
Why may not whipping have as good
A grace, performed in time and mood,
With comely movement, and by art,
Raise passion in a lady's heart?

855 It is an easier way to make

Love by, than that which many take.
Who would not rather suffer whipping,
Than swallow toasts of bits of ribbon?
Make wicked verses, traits, and faces,
860 And spell names over, with beer-glasses?
Be under vows to hang and die
Love's sacrifice, and all a lie?
With China-oranges and tarts,

And whining plays, lay baits for hearts? 865 Bribe chamber-maids with love and money, To break no roguish jests upon ye? Or, venturing to be brisk and wanton, 870 Do penance in a paper lantern?

All this you may compound for now,
By suffering what I offer you;

Which is no more than has been done
By knights for ladies long agone.
875 Did not the great La Mancha do so
For the Infanta del Toboso?

Did not th' illustrious Bassa make
Himself a slave for Misse's sake?
Was not young Florio sent, to cool
His flame for Biancafiore, to school?
885 Did not a certain lady whip,

Of late, her husband's own lordship?
And though a grandee of the house,
Clawed him with fundamental blows ;
Tied him stark-naked to a bed-post,

890 And firked his hide as if she 'ad rid post; And after in the sessions court,

Where whipping's judged, had honour for 't?
This swear you will perform, and then
I'll set you from th' enchanted den,

895 And the magician's circle, clear.'
Quoth he, 'I do profess and swear,
And will perform what you enjoin,
I never see you mine.'

900

Or

may

"Amen,' quoth she, then turned about, And bid her squire let him out.

But ere an artist could be found
T' undo the charms another bound,
The sun grew low, and left the skies,
Put down, some write, by ladies' eyes;
905 The moon pulled off her veil of light,
That hides her face by day from sight,
Mysterious veil, of brightness made,
That's both her lustre and her shade,
And in the night as freely shone,
910 As if her rays had been her own:
For darkness is the proper sphere
Where all false glories use t' appear.
The twinkling stars began to muster,
And glitter with their borrowed lustre,
915 While sleep the wearied world relieved,
By counterfeiting death revived.

920

His whipping penance, till the morn,
Our votary thought it best t' adjourn,
And not to carry on a work

Of such importance in the dark,
With erring haste, but rather stay,
And do't in th' open face of day;
And in the mean time go in quest
Of next retreat to take his rest.

PART II.-CANTO II.

THE ARGUMENT.

'TIS

The knight and squire in hot dispute,
Within an ace of falling out,

Are parted with a sudden fright
Of strange alarm, and stranger sight;
With which adventuring to stickle,

They're sent away in nasty pickle.

IS strange how some men's tempers suit, Like bawd and brandy, with dispute, That for their own opinions stand fast, Only to have them clawed and canvassed; 5 That keep their consciences in cases, As fiddlers do their crowds and bases, Ne'er to be used, but when they're bent To play a fit for argument;

Make true and false, unjust and just,

Of no use but to be discussed;

Dispute and set a paradox,

Like a strait boot, upon the stocks,
And stretch it more unmercifully

Than Helmont, Montaigne, White, or Tully. 15 So th' ancient Stoics, in their porch,

With fierce dispute maintained 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 polemic brawl;
In which some hundreds on the place
Were slain outright, and many a face
Retrenched of nose, and eyes, and beard,
To maintain what their sect averred.
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.

130

The sun had long since, in the lap Of Thetis, taken out his nap,

And like a lobster boiled, the morn From black to red began to turn; When Hudibras, whom thoughts and aching 'Twixt sleeping kept, all night, and waking, 35 Began to rub his drowsy eyes,

40

And from his couch prepared to rise;
Resolving to despatch the deed

He vowed to do with trusty speed:

But first, with knocking loud and bawling,
He roused the squire, in truckle lolling:

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:

50

Where now arrived, and half unharnessed,

To

carry on the work in earnest,

He stopped, and paused upon the sudden,
And with a serious forehead plodding,

F