And ring the changes upon cases,
As plain as noses upon faces,

As you have well instructed me,

For which you 've 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 humm'd upon it, thus he writ.

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V. 782. The beggar's prayer for the lawyer would have suited this gentleman very well. See the works of J. Taylor, the Water-poet, p. 101. May the terms be everlasting to thee, thou man of tongue; and may contentions grow and multiply! may actions beget actions, and cases engender cases, as thick as hops; may every day of the year be a ShroveTuesday; let proclamations forbid fighting, to increase actions of battery; that thy cassock may be three-piled, and the welts of thy gown may not grow threadbare!"

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 deny'd access

To all my earthly happiness,

Am fallen from the paradise

Of

your good graces, and fair eyes; Lost to the world, and you, I 'm sent To everlasting banishment,

Where all the hopes I had to 've won

Your heart, being dash'd, will break my own.

Yet if you were not so severe

To pass your doom before you hear,

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*This Epistle was to be the result of all the fair methods the Knight was to use in gaining the Widow: it therefore required all his wit and dexterity to draw from this artful Lady an unwary answer. If the plot succeeded, he was to compel her inmediately, by law, to a compliance with his desires. But the Lady was too cunning to give him such a handle as he longed for: on the contrary, her answer silenced all his pretensions.

You'd find, upon my just defence,

How much ye 've 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 t' have done 't
Upon as different an account;

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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,

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Forswear and perjure by the day,
And make th' 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

Th' old-fashion'd 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

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Than gout, or deafness, or bad eyes,
To make them 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 th' innocent;
To make the ears repair the wrong
Committed by th' 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 've acknowledg'd I have done,
Although you now disdain to own;
But sentence what you rather ought
T' 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 check't,

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:

For as best temper'd blades are found,
Before they break, to bend quite round;
So truest oaths are still most tough,
And, though they bow, are breaking proof.
Then wherefore should they not b' allow'd
In love a greater latitude?

For as the law of arms approves

All ways to conquest, so should love's;
And not be ty'd to true or false,

But make that justest that prevails:

For how can that which is above

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All empire, high and mighty love,

พ

Submit its great prerogative

To any other pow'r alive?

Shall Love, that to no crown gives place,
Become the subject of a case?

The fundamental law of Nature

Be over-rul'd by those made after?
Commit the censure of its cause

To any but its own great laws?
Love, that's the world's preservative,

That keeps all souls of things alive;
Controls the mighty pow'r of Fate,
And gives mankind a longer date;
The life of Nature, that restores

As fast as Time and Death devours;
To whose free gift the world does owe
Not only earth, but heaven too:

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