HUDIBRAS

HUDIBRAS.

PART II.-CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The knight, being clapped by th' heels in prison,

The last unhappy expedition,

Love brings his action on the case,

And lays it upon Hudibras.

How he receives the lady's visii,

And cunningly solicits his suit,
Which she defers; yet on parole,
Redeems him from th' enchanted hole.

UT now, t' observe romantique method,

BUT

Let rusty steel a while be sheathed;
And all those harsh and rugged sounds
Of bastinados, cuts, and wounds,
5 Exchanged to love's more gentle style,
To let our reader breathe a while :
In which, that we may be as brief as
Is possible, by way of preface.

Is 't not enough to make one strange,
To That some men's fancies should ne'er change,
But make all people do and say

The same things still the self-same way ?
Some writers make all ladies purloined,
And knights pursuing like a whirlwind.

15

20

Others make all their knights, in fits
Of jealousy, to lose their wits;

Till drawing blood o' th' dames, like witches, They're forthwith cured of their capriches. Some always thrive in their amours,

By pulling plaisters off their sores;

As cripples do to get an alms,

Just so do they, and win their dames.
Some force whole regions, in despite

O' geography, to change their site;

25 Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before, come after;
But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;
For one for sense, and one for rhyme,

30

I think's sufficient at one time.

But we forget in what sad plight
We lately left the captived knight
And pensive squire, both bruised in body,
And conjured into safe custody.

35 Tired with dispute, and speaking Latin,
As well as basting and bear-baiting,
And desperate of any course,

40

45

To free himself by wit or force,
His only solace was, that now
His dog-bolt fortune was so low,
That either it must quickly end,
Or turn about again, and mend;
In which he found th' event, no less
Than other times, beside his guess.
There is a tall long-sided dame,
But wondrous light, ycleped Fame,
That like a thin chameleon boards
Herself on air, and eats her words;