Presbytery, this human learning;

Two things s' averse, they never yet
But in thy rambling fancy met.

But I shall take a fit occasion

T' evince thee by' ratiocination,

Some other time in place more proper

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Than this we're in; therefore let's stop here, 1380

And rest our weary'd bones awhile,

Already tir'd with other toil.

PART II. CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Knight, by damnable Magician,
Being cast illegally in prison,
Love brings his action on the case,
And lays it upon Hudibras.

How he receives the Lady's visit,

And cunningly solicits his suit,
Which she defers; yet, on parole,

Redeems him from th' enchanted hole.

BUT now, t' observe Romantique method,
Let bloody steel awhile be sheathed,
And all those harsh and rugged sounds
Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds,
Exchang'd to love's more gentle style,

Arg. V. 1, 2. Var.

'The Knight being clapp'd by th' heels in prison,
The last unhappy expedition.'

Arg. V. 5. Var. 'How he revi's,' &c.

V. 1. The beginning of this Second Part may perhaps seem strange and abrupt to those who do not know that it was written on purpose in imitation of Virgil, who begins the Fourth Book of his Eneid in the very same manner, 'At regina gravi,' &c. And this is enough to satisfy the curiosity of those who believe that invention and fancy ought to be measured, like cases in law, by precedents, or else they are in the power of the critic.

V. 2. Var. 'Let rusty steel,' and 'To trusty steel.'

To let our reader breathe awhile.

In which, that we may be as brief as
Is possible, by way of preface:

Is 't not enough to make one strange,

That some men's fancies should ne'er change,
But make all people do and say

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The same things still the self-same way?
Some writers make all ladies purloin'd,
And knights pursuing like a whirlwind:
Others make all their knights, in fits

Of jealousy, to lose their wits;

Till drawing blood o' th' dames, like witches,

They're forthwith cur'd of their capriches.

Some always thrive in their amours,

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By pulling plasters off their sores

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As cripples do to get an alms,

Just so do they, and win their dames.

Some force whole regions, in despite

O' geography, to change their site;

Make former times shake hands with latter,

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And that which was before come after.

But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;

For one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think 's sufficient at one time.

V. 5-8. Var. 'And unto love turn we our style,
To let our readers breathe awhile,

By this time tir'd with th' horrid sounds

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Of blows, and cuts, and blood, and wounds.'

V. 10. Var. 'That a man's fancy.'

But we forget in what sad plight
We whilom left the captiv'd Knight

And pensive Squire, both bruis'd in body,
And coujur'd into safe custody.

Tir'd with dispute, and speaking Latin,

As well as basting and Bear-baiting,
And desperate of any course
To free himself by wit or force,
His only solace was, that now
His dog-bolt fortune was so low,
That either it must quickly end,
Or turn about again, and mend;
In which he found th' event, no less
Than other times, beside his guess.

There is a tall long-sided dame,
(But wond'rous light) ycleped Fame,
That like a thin cameleon boards
Herself on air, and eats her words;

Upon her shoulders wings she wears

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Like hanging sleeves, lin'd through with ears, 50
And eyes, and tongues, as poets list,
Made good by deep mythologist:
With these she through the welkin flies,
And sometimes carries truth, oft lies;
With letters hung, like eastern pigeons,

V. 32. Var. 'We lately.'

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V. 48. The beauty of this consists in the double meaning. The first alludes to Fame's living on Report: the second is an insinuation, that if a report is narrowly enquired into, and traced up to the original author, it is made to contradict itself.

And Mercuries of furthest regions;
Diurnals writ for regulation

Of lying, to inform the nation,

And by their public use to bring down
The rate of whetstones in the kingdom.
About her neck a packet-mail,

Fraught with advice, some fresh, some stale;
Of men that walk'd when they were dead,
And cows of monsters brought to bed;
Of hailstones big as pullets' eggs,

And puppies whelp'd with twice two legs;
A blazing star seen in the west,

By six or seven men at least.

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The one sounds vilely, th' other well;
And therefore vulgar authors name
Th' one Good, the other evil Fame.

This tattling gossip knew too well
What mischief Hudibras befell;
And straight the spiteful tidings bears
Of all, to th' unkind Widow's ears.
Democritus ne'er laugh'd so loud

To see bawds carted through the crowd,
Or funerals, with stately pomp,

V. 77. Var. 'Twattling gossip.'

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