The moon pull'd off her veil of light,
That hides her face by day from fight,
(Myfterious veil, of brightness made,
That 's both her luftre and her fhade!)
And in the lantern of the night,
With fhining horns hung out her light;
For darkness is the proper sphere
Where all falfe glories use t' appear.
The twinkling ftars began to mufter,
And glitter with their borrow'd lufter,
While fleep the weary'd world reliev❜d,
By counterfeiting death reviv’d.
His whipping penance, till the morn,
Our votary thought it best t' adjourn,
And not to carry on a work
Of fuch importance in the dark,
With erring hafte, but rather stay,
And do 't in th' open face of day;
And in the mean time go in quest
Of next retreat to take his reft.

905

910

915

920

are not more exact in describing times and feasons than our Poet: we may trace his hero morning and night; and it should be obferved, in the conclufion of this Canto (conformably to the prac tice of the Critics upon Homer and Virgil) that one day is only paffed fince the opening of the Poem.

Ver. 911, 912.]

For darkness is the proper sphere,

Where all falfe glories use t' appear.

Thefe two lines not in the two first editions of 1664, and first inferted 1674.

HUDIBRAS.

HUDI BRA S.

PART II. CANTO II.

THE

ARGUMENT.

The Knight and Squire in hot difpute,
Within an ace of falling out,

Are parted with a fudden fright
Of ftrange alarm, and ftranger fight;
With which adventuring to ftickle,
They 're fent away in nafty pickle.

fuit

IS ftrange how fome men's
tempers
(Like bawd and brandy) with difpute,

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 crowds and bases;

Ne'er to be us'd, but when they're bent
To play a fit for
argument:

Make true and false, unjust and juft,

Of no ufe but to be difcuft;

5

10

Ver. 2.] (Like barud and brandy). Brandee, in all editions to

1704, inclufive.

Difpute,

Difpute, and fet a paradox,

Like a ftrait boot, upon the stocks,
And stretch it more unmercifully

Than Helmot, Montaigne, White, or Tully.
So th' ancient Stoics, in their porch,
With fierce difpute maintain'd their church,
Beat out their brains in fight and ftudy,

To prove
That bonum is an animal,

that virtue is a body,

Made good with ftout polemick 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,

15

20

25

39

Ver. 14.] Mountaygn, or, Mountaign—and Tully, In all editions to 1704, inclufive. Altered to Montaign and Lully, in 1710, or 1716.

Ver. 29.] Several of the books in Homer's Iliad and Odyffey begin with describing the Morning: fo, alfo, does Mr. Butler take care to let the world know at what time of the day (which he exactly defcribes) these momentous actions of his hero were tranfacted. The morning's approach, the Knight's rifing, and rouzing up his Squire, are humourously described.

And,

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 rise,

Refolving to dispatch the deed

He vow'd to do, with trufty speed:

But first with knocking loud, and bawling,
He rouz'd the Squire, in truckle lolling:
And after many circumftances

Which vulgar authors in romances

Do use to spend their time and wits on,
To make impertinent description,
They got (with much ado) to horse,
And to the Castle bent their course,
In which he to the Dame before
To fuffer whipping-duty fwore :

35

40

45

Where now arriv'd, and half unharnest,
To carry on the work in earnest,

He stopp'd, and paus'd upon the fudden,

50

And, with a serious forehead plodding,
Sprung a new fcruple in his head,
Which first he fcratch'd, and after faid;
Whether it be direct infringing

An oath, if I should wave this swinging,

55

And

Ver. 48.] Whipping duly fwore. In the two firft editions. Ver. 55, 56.] This dialogue between Hudibras and Ralph fets before us the hypocrify and villainy of all parties of the Rebels

And what I've fworn to bear forbear,

And fo b' equivocation swear;

Or whether 't be a leffer fin

To be forefworn, than act the thing;
Are deep and subtle points, which muft,
T'inform my Confcience, be difcuft;
In which to err a tittle may
To errors infinite make way:
And therefore I defire to know
Thy judgment, ere we further go.
Quoth Ralpho, Since you do injoin 't,
I fhall 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,

бо

65

70

with regard to Oaths; what equivocations and evafions they made ufe of, to account for the many perjuries they were daily guilty of, and the several oaths they readily took, and as readily broke, merely as they found it fuited their interest, as appears from verfe 107, &c. and verse 377, &c. of this Canto, and Part III. Cant. iii. verfe 547, &c. Archbishop Bramhall fays, “That "the hypocrites of those times, though they magnified the obli

gation of an oath, yet in their own cafe difpenfed with all "oaths, civil, military, and religious. We are now told (fays "he) that the oaths we have taken are not to be examined ac"cording to the interpretation of men: No! How then? Surely according to the interpretation of devils."

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