For to be known a cuckold can be no
Dishonour, but to him that thinks it so;
For, if he feel no chagrin, or remorse,
His forehead's shot-free, and he's ne'er the worse:
For horns, like horny calluses, are found
To grow on skulls that have received a wound,
Are cracked, and broken; not at all on those
That are invulnerate, and free from blows.
What a brave time had cuckold-makers then,
When they were held the worthiest of men,
The real fathers of the commonwealth,
That planted colonies in Rome itself!
When he that helped his neighbours, and begot
Most Romans, was the noblest patriot!
For if a brave man, that preserved from death
One citizen, was honoured with a wreath,*
He, that more gallantly got three or four,
In reason must deserve a great deal more.
Then, if those glorious worthies of old Rome,
That civilized the world they 'ad overcome,
And taught it laws and learning, found this way
The best to save their empire from decay;
Why should not these, that borrow all the worth
They have from them, not take this lesson forth,
Get children, friends, and honour too, and money
By prudent managing of matrimony?
For, if 'tis honourable by all confessed,
Adultery must be worshipful at least;
And these times great, when private men are come
Up to the height and politic of Rome.
All by-blows were not only free-born then,
But, like John Lilburne, free-begotten men; +
Had equal right and privilege with these,
That claim by title right of the four seas.‡
*See vol. i. p. 147, note *.
† See vol. ii. p. 139, note *.
See vol. ii. p. 86, note *.
For being in marriage born, it matters not
After what liturgy they were begot;
And if there be a difference, they have
Th' advantage of the chance in proving brave,
By being engendered with more life and force,
Than those begotten the dull way of course.
The Chinese place all piety and zeal,
In serving with their wives the commonweal;
Fix all their hopes of merit, and salvation,
Upon their women's supererogation;
With solemn vows their wives and daughters bind,
Like Eve in Paradise, to all mankind;
And those that can produce the most gallants,
Are held the preciousest of all their saints;
Wear rosaries about their necks to con
Their exercises of devotion on,
That serve them for certificates, to show
With what vast numbers they have had to do;
Before they're married make a conscience
T'omit no duty of incontinence;
And she, that has been oft'nest prostituted,
Is worthy of the greatest match reputed.
But, when the conquering Tartar went about
To root this orthodox religion out,
They stood for conscience, and resolved to die,
Rather than change the ancient purity
Of that religion, which their ancestors,
And they, had prospered in so many years;
Vowed to their gods to sacrifice their lives,
And die their daughters' martyrs, and their wives,
Before they would commit so great a sin
Against the faith they had been bred in.
UPON PLAGIARIES.
WHY should the world be so averse
To plagiary privateers,
That all men's sense and fancy seize,
And make free prize of what they please?
As if, because they huff and swell,
Like pilferers full of what they steal,
Others might equal power assume,
To pay 'em with as hard a doom;
To shut them up, like beasts in pounds,
For breaking into others' grounds;
Mark 'em with characters and brands,
Like other forgers of men's hands;
And in effigy hang and draw
The poor delinquents by club-law;
When no indictment justly lies,
But where the theft will bear a price.
For though wit never can be learned,
may b' assumed and owned, and earned;
And, like our noblest fruits, improved,
By being transplanted and removed;
And as it bears no certain rate,
Nor pays one penny to the state,
The following alteration appears on the margin of the MS., Butler's hand-writing :
Why should the world be so severe
To every small-wit privateer?
Mr. Thyer conjectures that this satire was aimed at Sir John Denham, and adds that, the charge of plagiarism in borrowing the Sophy and buying Cooper's Hill coincides with and confirms this supposition.' But buying cannot be considered plagiarism; and borrowing an entire work bears much the same relation to plagiarism as a wholesale robbery bears to petty larceny. Even if it had been true that Denham palmed such impositions upon the public, he would not have come within the description of persons attacked in this satire; and should have been treated as an offender of a very different class.
With which it turns no more t' account
Than virtue, faith, and merit's wont;
Is neither moveable, nor rent,
Nor chattel, goods, nor tenement;
Nor was it ever passed b' entail,
Nor settled upon the heirs-male;
Or if it were, like ill-got land,
Did never fall t' a second hand:
So 'tis no more to be engrossed,
Than sunshine, or the air inclosed;
Or to propriety confined,
Than th' uncontrolled and scattered wind.
For why should that which nature meant
To owe its being to its vent;
That has no value of its own,
But as it is divulged and known;
Is perishable and destroyed,
As long as it lies unenjoyed;
Be scanted of that liberal use,
Which all mankind is free to choose,
And idly hoarded, where 'twas bred,
Instead of being dispersed and spread?
And the more lavish and profuse,
"Tis of the nobler general use;
As riots, though supplied by stealth,
Are wholesome to the commonwealth;
And men spend freelier what they win,
Than what they've freely coming in.
The world's as full of curious wit
Which those, that father, never writ,
As 'tis of bastards, which the sot
And cuckold owns, that ne'er begot;
Yet pass as well, as if the one
And th' other by-blow were their own.
For why should he that's impotent
To judge, and fancy, and invent,
For that impediment be stopped
To own, and challenge, and adopt,
At least th' exposed, and fatherless
Poor orphans of the pen, and press,
Whose parents are obscure, or dead,
Or in far countries born and bred.
As none but kings have power to raise
A levy, which the subject pays,
And, though they call that tax a loan,
Yet, when 'tis gathered, 'tis their own;
So he, that's able to impose
A wit-excise on verse or prose,—
And, still the abler authors are,
Can make them pay the greater share,—
Is prince of poets of his time,
And they his vassals, that supply him;
Can judge more justly of what he takes
Than any of the best he makes;
And more impartially conceive
What's fit to choose, and what to leave.
For men reflect more strictly upon
The sense of others, than their own;
And wit that's made of wit and slight,
Is richer than the plain downright:
As salt that's made of salt's more fine,
Than when it first came from the brine;
And spirit's of a nobler nature,
Drawn from the dull ingredient matter.
Hence mighty Virgil's said, of old,
From dung to have extracted gold,-
As many a lout and silly clown,
By his instructions since has done,—
And grew more lofty by that means,
Than by his livery-oats and beans;
When from his carts and country farms
He rose a mighty man at arms;
To whom th' heroics ever since
Have sworn allegiance as their prince,
And faithfully have in all times
Observed his customs in their rhymes,
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