for a barrel of ale, as he often used upon all occasions to declare.' This note has been supposed to point to Sir Samuel Luke, but on what evidence does not appear. And even if this particular incident refers to that worthy, it would not follow that he could claim the exclusive honour of being the original from which Hudibras was drawn.

570. got the odds, &c.

Been elected by a majority.

592. an antique show. The Skimmington, or Riding of the Stang, is here described, and in exuberant burlesque it is inextricably blended with Roman triumphs, borough elections, the Lord Mayor's show, the enlargement of the Pomoerium, the drill of the train bands, in fact almost every conceivable element of pomp that extravagant art could make ridiculous.

The Skimmington was the name applied to the procession which old custom used to organise in honour of a man who had been beaten by his wife. The man was mounted behind the woman with his face to the horse's tail, and carrying in his hand a distaff at which he was obliged to pretend to spin. The woman had a ladle with which she banged him about the head, whilst in front was carried a woman's smock on a pole to signify feminine supremacy, and if occasion were supposed to warrant it, a pair of horns, as in Hogarth's illustration, implying unfaithfulness as well as violence in the wife. A hideous din of marrowbones and cleavers, tin pots, brass horns, drums, &c., accompanied the procession. The name is probably derived from the skimming-ladle' with which the woman was armed. As the procession passed along the custom was to sweep in front of any door where the mistress was supposed to rule, as a hint that her turn might come next. Cf. 'Harke ye, Dame Ursley Suddlechop,' said Jenkin, starting up, his eyes flashing with anger, ' remember I am none of your husband, and if I were you would do well not to forget whose threshold was swept when they last rode the Skimmington upon such another scolding jade as yourself.'-SCOTT, Fortunes of Nigel, chap. xxi.

611. levet, A reveillé. Fr. lever.

614. Sweads. This couplet is not in the first edition. It was added in 1674. The Swedes, who under Gustavus Adolphus came to be reckoned the first soldiers of Europe, are said to have been the first to have practised firing in three ranks.

618. forehand. A difficult word. Properly it means 'advantage,' and so 'preferable,' when used as an adjective. Cf.

And but for ceremony such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil and night with sleep,
Had the forehand and vantage of a king.'

SHAKS. Henry V., IV. i. 297.

648. reformado. Cf. II. ii. 116, and note.

650.

whifflers and staffiers. Whiffler, one who goes at the head of a procession to clear the way. The whiffler was an

officer in the corporation of Norwich.

Whiffler = fife. Cf.—

'Which like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,
Seems to prepare his way.'

SHAKS. Henry V., Act V. Prol. 1. 12.

Staffier is simply a lacquey, one who carries a staff.

669. Goodwin. This is Dr. T. Godwin, rector of Brightwell, author of Romance Historice Anthologia, an English Exposition of the Romane Antiquities, wherein many Romane and English_offices are paralleled, and divers obscure phrases explained. For the use of Abingdon School.' (Oxford, 1614.) He must be distinguished from Dr. T. Goodwin, who was one of the Five Dissenting Brethren 'in the Assembly of Divines (cf. Introduction to Part I. p. xxi.).

670. Ross. Cf. I. ii. 2, and note.

Cælius Rhodigine. This is Ludovico Celio Richeri (1460-1525); was appointed by Francis I. professor of Greek and Latin at Milan, and published Lectiones Antiquae. He is said to have died of grief after the defeat of Francis at Pavia.

671. Speed and Stow. Both tailor chroniclers.' John Stow (1525-1605) published A Summary of English Chronicles in 1561, and struggling on as best he could, living apparently on his own enthusiasm aided by occasional assistance from Archbishop Parker he brought out in 1580 his Annales, or a Generale Chronicle of England from Brute unto this present yeare of Christ, 1580.

John Speed (1555-1629) was another man of similar sort, who wrote a History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, besides other works, historical and theological.

674.

Decorums-historians. Nash quotes the opinion of Dr. Loveday that m and n were in Butler's day supposed to rhyme. He quotes in confirmation

and

'A stitch in time

Saves nine,'

'Tread on a worm

And it will turn.'

But it is by no means necessary to account thus curiously for Butler's rhymes.

678. a slave. Butler is doubtless thinking of Juvenal's lines

'Quippe tenet sudans hanc publicus, et, sibi Consul
Ne placeat, curru servus portatur eodem.'

Satire X. v. 42. There seems, however, some cause to doubt whether Juvenal applies this passage to a triumph of a 'Roman conqueror,' or to the opening of the Circensian Games.

683. manties della guerre. The allusion is to the red flag (vexillum) displayed by Roman generals as a call to arms. Cf. Caesari omnia uno tempore erant agenda: vexillum proponendum, quod erat insigne cum ad arma concurri opporteret.' -CAESAR, De Bell. Gall. II. 20.

689. antique. The old spelling of this word has been preserved, though there can be little doubt that its correct modern form would be antic. Eggs were not used in Roman triumphs, though they were in the games of Ceres and the orgies of Orpheus.

696. smatter. For this use of the word cf. I. i. 187.

703. covert-baron. The technical name for the legal position of a wedded wife, under protection of her husband, her baron.

705. like hares. Browne in his Vulgar Errors mentions a common belief that hares changed their sex every year.

709. gills girls. The word is preserved in the timehonoured proverb Every Jack must have his Gill,' and in the nursery rhyme of that 'Jack and Gill' who have gone 'up a hill,' through successive centuries of English infancy.

712. horns. See note on the Skimmington, supra, 1. 592. 733. ovation, a lesser triumph. It differed from a triumph in that the general entered the city on foot and not in a fourhorsed chariot, that his chaplet was of myrtle, not of laurel, that the senate did not head the procession, but companies of musicians followed it, and a sheep (ovis, whence ovatio,) was sacrificed instead of a bull. It was granted to a general for

successes either too inconsiderable in themselves or over foes too unworthy, to entitle him to a real triumph, as for instance when the advantage had been gained with little or no bloodshed. Cf. infra, 1. 734.

740. cucking stool. This has also been termed a duckingstool, or even a choking-stool, a variety of name which points to an obscure origin. The term is very variously derived. It has been held to be connected with the French choquer, whence our old word chuck, to throw. It would thus be a stool con

The

trived for 'chucking' scolding 'women into the water. lynch law of our ancestors had various devices for the punishment of scolds, as the scold's bridle, a kind of gag the woman was compelled to wear in a procession, not unlike that of the Skimmington. It would seem highly probable, however, that the name cucking-stool is closely related to cuckold, and points to a more serious offence than mere scolding. In this latter case it would have the same etymological history as the word cuckold, of which the last -d is excrescent. This leaves cuckol Lat. cuculus = cuckoo, the bird that lives in other birds' nests. Be that as it may, the cucking-stool was an object common enough in the country in Butler's day. It consisted of a wooden chair fastened to the end of a long pole suspended lever-fashion over a pool of water. In this chair the scold was fastened, and by raising the shore end, the end over the water was depressed, and the woman immersed. As she was generally half drowned in the process, and as the particular water was selected for anything rather than cleanliness, it will readily occur that this brutal custom inflicted a really severe punishment.

744. to wed. This ceremony was instituted in 1174, by Pope Alexander III., who gave the Doge a gold ring from his finger, in token of the victory achieved by the Venetian fleet at Istria, over Frederic Barbarossa, in defence of the Pope's quarrel; desiring him at the same time to throw a similar ring into the sea every year on Ascension Day in commemoration of the event. On throwing the ring into the sea, the Doge repeats the words, Despohsamus te, mare, in signum veri et perpetui dominii.’

761. Ethnic. Popish. So used by Dryden of the Popish plot

'Saw with disdain an Ethnic plot begun,
And scorned by Jebusites to be outdone.'
Absalom and Achitophel, 1. 517.

775. women who were our first apostles. The fair sex took a prominent part in the sacrifices of the war on both sides. NEAL, in his History of the Puritans, Vol. II. chap. xi., mentions thimbles and bodkins' as among the contributions to the first Parliament loan for conducting the operations against the king.

781. cullies. Those fondly infatuated with them. note 'Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to his Lady,' l. 168.

789. rap and rend. First edition reads 'rap and run.' 798. caudle. Lat. calidus, a warm drink.

Cf.

803. raised rampires. This actually happened, not only at the siege of Coventry, but also when the train-bands were called out to defend London.

T

810. a committee. A satirical pamphlet, published in 1647, quoted by Grey, and called The Parliament of Ladies, or divers remarkable Passages of Ladies in Spring Garden in Parliament assembled, states that 'The House considered in the next place that diverse weak persons have crept into places beyond their abilitys; and to the end that men of greater parts may be put into their rooms, they appointed Lady Middlesex, Mrs. Dunch, the Lady Foster, the Lady Anne Waller, by reason of their great experience in soldiery in the kingdom, to be a Committee of Tryers for the business.'

818. orange-tawny. This was the colour at first taken by the army of the Parliament, being the colours of Essex, their first commander. But there is another allusion. Orangetawny was the colour worn by Jews and persons of the lowest rank. Cf.

Bottom. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in?

Quince. Why, what you will.

Bottom. I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow.

SHAKS. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. ii. So also Bacon, Essay xli., "They say. that usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do judaize.'

....

879. Vespasian. Cf. Suetonius, Life of Vespasian, c. 5. 'Mox quum Aedilem eum C. Caesar succensens curam verendis viis non adhibitam luto jussisset oppleri, congesto per milites in praetextae sinum, non defuerunt qui interpretarentur, quandoque proculcatam desertamque rempublicam civili aliqua perturbatione in tutelam ejus ac velut in gremium, deventuram.'