Where pedant made his pathic bum
For her fake fuffer martyrdom ?
Did not a certain lady whip
Of late her husband's own lordship?
And though a grandee of the house,
Claw'd him with fundamental blows;
Ty'd him stark naked to a bed-poft,
And firk'd his hide, as if fh'had rid post;
And after in the feffions-court,
Where whipping's judg'd, had honour for't?
This fwear you will perform, and then
I'll fet you from th’inchanted den,
And the magician's circle, clear.
Quoth he, I do profess and swear,
And will perform what you injoin,
Or may I never see you mine.
Amen, quoth fhe, then turn'd about,
And bid her fquire let him out.
But ere an artist could be found
T'undo the charms, another bound,
The fun grew low, and left the skies,
Put down, fome write, by ladies eyes;
The moon pull'd off her veil of light,
That hides her face by day from fight,
(Mysterious veil, of brightness made,
That's both her luftre and her fhade,)
And in the lanthorn of the night,
With fhining horns hung out her light;
For darkness is the proper sphere,
Where all falfe glories ufe t'appear.
The twinkling stars began to muster,
And glitter with their borrow'd luftre ;
While sleep the weary'd world reliev'd,
By counterfeiting death reviv'd.
His whipping penance till the morn,
Our vot'ry thought it best t'adjourn,
And not to carry on a work
Of fuch importance in the dark,
With erring haste, but rather stay,
And do't in the open face of day;
And, in the mean time, go in quest
Of next retreat to take his reft.
The knight and squire in hot dispute,
Within an ace of falling out,
Are parted with a fudden fright
Of strange alarm, and stranger fight;
With which adventuring to ftickle,
They're fent away in nasty pickle.
(Like bawd and brandy) with dispute,
That for their own opinions stand fast
Only to have them claw'd and canvast;
That keep their confciences in cafes,
As fiddlers do their crouds and bafes;
Ne'er to be us'd but when they're bent
To play a fit for argument:
Make true and false, unjust, and just,
Of no ufe but to be difcuft;
Difpute and fet a paradox,
Like a strait boot upon the stocks,
And stretch it more unmercifully,
Than Helmont, Montaign, White, or Lully.
So th'antient Stoics in their porch,
With fierce difpute maintain'd their church,
Beat out their brains in fight and study,
To prove that virtue is a body;
That bonum is an animal,
Made good with stout prolemic brawl:
In which fome hundreds on the place
Were flain outright, and many a face
Retrench'd of nofe, and eyes, and beard,
To maintain what their fect averr'd.
All which the knight and squire in wrath
Had like t'have fuffer'd for their faith,
Each striving to make good his own,
As by the fequel fhall be shown.
The fun had long fince, in the lap
Of Thetis, taken out his nap,
And like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn;
When Hudibras, whom thoughts and aking, 'Twixt fleeping kept all night, and waking, Began to rub his drowsy eyes,
And from his couch prepar'd to rife,
Refolving to dispatch the deed
He vow'd to do, with trufty speed.
But first, with knocking loud, and bawling,
He rous'd the fquire, in truckle lolling:
And, after many circumstances,
Which vulgar authors in romances
Do use to spend their time and wits on,
To make impertinent defcription,
They got, with much ado, to horse,
And to the caftle bent their course,
In which he to the dame before
To fuffer whipping duly fwore:
Where now arriv'd, and half unharnest,
To carry on the work, in earnest,
He ftopp'd, and paus'd upon the sudden,
And with a ferious forehead plodding,
Sprung a new fcruple in his head,
Which first he scratch'd, and after said:
Whether it be direct infringing
An oath, if I fhould wave this swinging,
And what I've fworn to bear, forbear,
And fo b'equivocation fwear;
Or whether it be a leffer fin
To be forfworn, than act the thing,
Are deep and fubtle points, which must,
T'inform my confcience, be discust;
In which to err a tittle, may,
To errors infinite make way:
And therefore I defire to know
Thy judgment, ere we farther go.
Quoth Ralpho, Since you do injoin't,
I shall enlarge upon the point;
And for my own part, do not doubt
Th'affirmative may be made out.
But first, to state the cafe aright,
For beft advantage of our light;
And thus 'tis: Whether't be a fin
To claw and curry your own skin,
Greater, or less, than to forbear,
And that you are forfworn, forswear.
But first, o'th'firft: the inward man,
And outward, like a clan and clan,
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