The ARGUMENT of Sir HUDIBRAS his paffing Worth, W CANTO I. HEN Civil Dudgeon first grew high, When hard Words, Jealoufes and Fears ARGUMENT, ver. ult. Is fung, but breaks off in the middle] A ridicule on Ronfarde's Franciade, and Sir William Davenant's Gondibert. (Mr. W.) CANTO, .1. When Civil Dudgeon, &c.] To take in Dudgeon, is inwardly to refent fome Injury or Affront, and what is previous to actual Fury. It was alter'd by Mr. Butler in an Edition 1674, to Civil Fury; (whether for the better or worse the Reader must be left to judge,) Thus it ftood in Edit. of 1684, 1689, 1694 and 1700. Civil Dudgeon was reftor'd in the Edition of 1704, and has continued so ever fince. 4.2. And Men fell out they knew not why.] It may justly be faid They knew not why; fince (as Lord Clarendon obferves, Hift. of the Rebellion, vol.1. fol. edit. p. 52.) "The like peace and plenty and uni"verfal tranquillity was never enjoyed by any Nation for ten years together, before those unhappy Troubles began." See the like obfervation by ABP Bramhall, Serpent Salve; Works in folio, p. 592. 3. When hard words, &c.] By hard words, he probably means the Cant words used by the Prefbyterians and Sectaries of thofe VOL. I. A times; 5 And made them fight, like mad or drunk, For Dame Religion as for Punk; times; fuch as Gospel-walking, Gospel-preaching, Soul-faving, Elect, Saints, the Godly, the Predeftinate, and the like; which they apply'd to their own Preachers, and themselves; likewise Arminians, (fome call'd them Ormanifts; see Dr. Walker's Sufferings of the Epifcopal Clergy, part 2. p. 252.) Papifts, Prelatifts, Malignants, Reprobates, wicked, ungodly, and carnal-minded; which they applied to all Loyal perfons, who were defirous of maintaining the establish'd Constitution in Church and State: by which they infused strange fears and jealoufies into the heads of the People, and made them believe there was a form'd defign in the King and his Minifters, to deprive them of their Religion and Liberties; fo that as foon as the Parliament met, and the Demagogues had affumed a licentiousness in fpeech, they first raifed Mobs to drive the King from his Palace, and then regular Forces to fight (as they falfely and wickedly pretended) for their Religion: they fet the People against the Common Prayer, which they made them believe was the Mass-book in English; and nick-named it Porridge. See Baftawick's Letter to Mr. Aquila Wicks, Nalfon's Collections, vol. 1. p. 503. Mercurius Rufticus, N° 111. p. 100. 194. and the Lethargy of the Church of England; fee Reformado precifely charactered by a Church-warden, p. 6. Publ. Libr. Cambridge, xix. 9.7. They enraged them likewise against the Surplice, calling it a Rag of Popery; the Whore of Babylon's Smock, and the Smock of the Whore of Rome. See a Tract intituled, A Rent in the Lawn Sleeves, 1641. p. 4. and A Babylonish Garment; fee Reformado precifely charactered, p. 8. .6. As for Punk.] Sir John Suckling has exprefs'd this Thought a little more decently, in the Tragedy of Brennoralt. "Religion now is a young Mistress here, "For which each Man will fight, and die at leaft; (Mr. W.) .8. Tho' not a Man of them knew wherefore.] The greatest Bigots are ufually Perfons of the fhalloweft Judgement, as it was in those wicked times, when Women and the meaneft Mechanics became zealous Sticklers for Controverfies, which none of them could be fuppofed to understand. An ingenious Italian in Queen Elizabeth's days, gave this Character of the Disciplinarians their Predeceffors, "That "the Common People were wifer than the wifeft of his Nation; for here the very Women and Shopkeepers were better able to judge "of Predeftination, and what Laws were fit to be made concerning "Church Government, than what were fit to be obeyed or demo"lished; that they were more able (or at least thought so) to raise 66 Whose Honesty they all durft fwear for, Tho' not a Man of them knew wherefore: When Gospel-Trumpeter, furrounded " and determine perplex'd Cafes of Confcience, than the most learn**ed Colleges in Italy; that Men of flighteft Learning, or at least "the most ignorant of the common People, were made for a New, or a Super-, or Re-Reformation of Religion. And in this they appear'd like that Man, who would never leave to whet and whet "his knife, till there was no Steel left to make it useful." Hooker's Life, by Walton, p. 10. prefix'd to his Eccles. Polity. 66 .9. When Gofpel Trumpeter, furrounded.] The Prefbyterians (many of whom, before the War, had got into Parish Churches) preach'd the People into Rebellion; incited them to take up Arms and fight the Lord's Battles, and deftroy the Amalekites, Root and Branch, Hip and Thigh, (Coleman before the Commons, April 30, 1643. p. 24.) and to root out the Wicked from the Earth; that was in their fenfe, all that lov'd the King, the Bishops, and the Common Prayer: They told the People afterwards, that they fhould bind their Kings in chains, and their Nobles in links of iron; fee Cheynel's Faft Sermon before the Lords, Mar. 26. 1645. p. 53. Century of eminent Prefbyterian Preachers, 1723. p.7. and one Durance pray'd to God at Sandwich, "That the King might be brought in Chains of Iron to his Parliament;" Edwards's Gangrena, part 2. p. 131, 134. part 3. p. 97. both which they literally did. And it has been fully made out, that many of the Regicides were drawn into the Grand Rebellion, by the direful Imprecations of feditious Preachers from the Pulpit: This fome of them own'd, and in particular Dr. South tells us, "That he had it from "the Mouth of Axtell the Regicide, that he with many more, went "into that execrable War, with fuch a controling horror upon "their Spirits, from those public Sermons, especially of Brooks and "Calamy," (fee a Specimen of their feditious Paffages, Cent. of eminent Prefbyterian Preachers, chap. 1. p. 3, 5, 6.) "that they "verily believed, they should have been accurfed by God for ever, "if they had not acted their part in that dismal Tragedy, and heartily done the Devil's work." Sermons, vol. 1. p. 513. And in this fenfe is that remarkable Expreffion of the Doctor to be taken, vol. 5. Serm. 1. "That it was the Pulpit that fupplied the Field with Sword-men, and the Parliament-house with Intendiaries." Sir Roger L'Eftrange (Reflection on Fab. 67. part. 1.) girds them notably upon this head: " A Trumpeter (fays he) in the Pulpit, is the very "Emblem of a Trumpeter in the Field, and the fame Charge holds good against both; only the Spiritual Trumpet is the most pernicious Inftrument of the two: for the latter ferves only to rouze the ર 66 86 86 A 2 "Courage 10 With long-ear'd Rout, to Battle founded, And Pulpit, Drum Ecclefiaftick, Was beat with Fift, instead of a Stick: Courage of the Soldiers, without any Doctrine or Application upofi "the Text; whereas the other infuses Malice over and above, and "preaches Death and Damnation both in one, and gives the very chapter and verfe for it." (fee Mr. Addifon's remark upon this and the following lines, Spectator N° 60. and Defcription of Perfons under Mufical Inftruments, Spect. N° 153-) 6. .10. With long-ear'd Rout, to Battle founded.] Their Ears appear'd to greater advantage from the shortnefs of their Hair; whence they got the name of Round-heads. (fee Lord Clarendon's Hiftory of the Rebellion, vol. 1. p. 267.) Mr. Cleveland, in his Hue and Cry after Sir John Prefbyter, defcribes him to be, With Hair in Character, and Luggs in Text. And Mr. Dryden, Hind and Panther, 66 And pricks up his predeftinating Ears. "His Barber fhall fo roundly indent with his head, that our Eyes 'may as well fee his Ears, as our Ears hear his Doctrine." Reformado precifely charactered, p. 12. Publ. Libr. Cambridge, xix. 9.7. England farewell, with Sin and Neptune bounded, The Committee-Man curried, a Comedy, by S. Sheppard, I have heard of one H-ll, a Precifian of this Cut, who after the Reforation, rebuking an Orthodox Clergyman for the Length of his Hair: in answer to him, he reply'd, "Old Prig, I promise you to cut 66 my Hair up to my Ears, provided you will cut your Ears up to or Hair. your .11,12. And Pulpit, Drum Ecclefiaftick,- Was beat with Fift,&c.] Alluding to their vehement Action in the Pulpit, and their beating it with their Fifts, as if they were beating a Drum. The Author of A Character of England, in a Letter to a French Nobleman, 1659. p. 15. obferves, "that they had the action of a Thrasher rather than of a Divine." And 'tis remark'd, (see Letter sent to London, from a Spy at Oxford, to Mr. Pym, &c. 1643. p.4.) of John Sedgewick; "That he thrashd fuch a fweating Lecture, that he put off his "Doublet:" and by Dr. Echard, (fee Contempt of the Clergy, p. 56.), "That the Preacher shrunk up his fhoulders, and ftretched himfelf, as if he was going to cleave a Bullock's head." Their Action 66 15 A Wight he was, whofe very fight wou'd That never bow'd his ftubborn Knee in the Pulpit, and precife, hypocritical behaviour in other respects, is alluded to in the following lines: Both Cain and Judas back are come, In Vizards moft divine; God bless us from a Pulpit Drum, And a preaching Catiline! (Sir J. Birkenhead reviv'd, p.5.) The Mock-Majefty of placing the Epithet after the Substantive, and the Extreme appofiteness of the Simile, may make it well deferve to be quoted, without any confideration of the Rhyme at all. .12. Inftead of a Stick.] The speaking a Stick as one word, with the ftrefs upon a, seems not blameable for the change of Accent only heightens the Burlesque, and confequently is rather an excellency than a fault. .13. Then did Sir Knight, &c.] Our Author, to make his Knight appear more ridiculous, has drefs'd him in all kinds of fantastic Colours, and put many Characters together, to finish him a perfect Coxcomb. . 14. And out he rode a Colonelling.] The Knight (if Sir Samuel Luke was Mr. Butler's Hero) was not only a Colonel in the Parliament-Army, but also Scoutmaster-General in the Counties of Bedford, Surrey, &c. (Walker's Hift. of Independency, part 1. p. 170.) This gives us fome light into his Character and Conduct: For he is now entering upon his proper Office, full of pretendedly pious, and fanctified Refolutions for the Good of his Country; his Peregrinations are fo confiftent with his Office and Humour, that they are no longer to be called fabulous, or improbable. The fucceeding Cantos are introduced with large Prefaces, but here the Poet feems impatient till he get into the Defcription and Character of his Hero. (Mr. B.) .15. A Wight he was, &c.] Wight often used for Perfon, by Chaucer, Spencer, and Fairfax in his Godfrey of Bulloign, &c. &c. .16. Mirrour of Knighthood.] There was a Book fo call'd, (fee Don Quixote, vol.1. c. 6. p. 48.) and Don Quixot is fo call'd by Cervantes, (vol. 1. b. 2. c. 1. p. 77.) Mirrour of Chivalry, (vol. 2. c. 2. p. 26, 29. vol. 3. c. 7. p. 65. vol. 4. c. 56. p. 557,616. Motteux's edit. 1706.) and Palmerin, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Peftle, act. 1. fee likewife Hiftory of Valentine and Orfon, c. 41. p. 178. . 17, 18. That never bow'd his stubborn Knee-To any thing but Chivalry.] i. e. he kneeled to the King, when he knighted him, but feldom upon any other occafion. A 3 *.194 |