the House from the lord-general Fairfax and his council of officers, and strange it is how men who could afterwards pretend such reluctancy and abhorrence of those things that were done, should forget they were the effective answer of their petitions.

"After the purgation of the House, upon a new debate of the treaty at the Isle of Wight, it was concluded dangerous to the realm, and destructive to the better interest, and the trial of the King was determined." Mem. of Col. Hutchinson, p. 296, et seq.

V. 1161. Rail'd at their covenant.] Walker, in his History of Independency, says, "The Independents called the covenant an almanack out of date."

To get from th' enemy, and Ralph, free.] An anonymous commentator on our poet says, "The Knight's conduct on this occasion may be called in question; for the reason upon which he founds it does not seem to be justifiable or conformable to the practice and benevolence of knights-errant. Does ever Don Quixote determine to leave Sancho in the lurch, or exposed to danger, though as often thwarted by him as Don Hudibras by Ralpho? Had the Knight made Sidrophel's imagined death the sole motive of his escape, he had been very much in the right to be expeditious but as he makes that his least concern, and seems to be anxious to involve his trusty squire in ruin, out of a mean spirit of revenge, this action cannot but appear detestable in the eye of every reader: nothing can be said in favour of the Knight, but that he fancied he might justly retort upon Ralpho (in practice) that doctrine which he had so elaborately inculcated in theory, That an innocent person might in justice be brought to suffer for the guilty.

:

"By what has been said, let it not be inferred, that the poet's judgment is impeached. No; he has hereby maintained an exact uniformity in the character of his hero, and made him speak and act correspondent to his principles.”

AN

HEROICAL EPISTLE

OF

HUDIBRAS TO SIDROPHEL.

ECCE ITERUM CRISPINUS.

WELL, Sidrophel, though 'tis in vain
To tamper with your crazy brain,
Without trepanning of your scull
As often as the moon's at full,
'Tis not amiss, ere y' are giv'n o'er,
To try one desp'rate med'cine more;
For where your case can be no worse
The desp'rat'st is the wisest course.
Is 't possible that you, whose ears
Are of the tribe of Issachar's,

And might (with equal reason) either
For merit or extent of leather,

With William Pryn's, before they were
Retrench'd and crucify'd, compare,

10

Should yet be deaf against a noise

So roaring as the public voice?

That speaks your virtues free and loud,
And openly in every crowd,

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As loud as one that sings his part

T'a wheelbarrow or turnip-cart,

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Or your new nick'd-nam'd old invention

To cry green hastings with an engine

(As if the vehemence had stunn'd

And torn your drum-heads with the sound);

And 'cause your folly's now no news,

But overgrown and out of use,

Persuade yourself there's no such matter,

But that 'tis vanished out of Nature;

When Folly, as it grows in years,
The more extravagant appears;
For who but you could be possest

With so much ignorance, and beast,

That neither all men's scorn and hate,

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Nor being laugh'd and pointed at,

Nor bray'd so often in a mortar,

1

Can teach you wholesome sense and nurture,
But (like a reprobate) what course i
Soever us'd, grow worse and worse?

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Can no transfusion of the blood,

That makes fools cattle, do you good ?:

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Nor putting pigs t' a bitch to nurse,

To turn them into mongrel curs,
Put you into a way at least

To make yourself a better beast ?,

Can all

your critical intrigues

Of trying sound from rotten eggs;....
Your sev'ral new-found remedies
Of curing wounds and scabs in trees;
Your arts of fluxing them for claps,
And purging their infected saps;
Recov'ring shankers, chrystallines,

And nodes and blotches in their rinds;

Have no effect to operate

Upon that duller block, your pate?
But still it must be lewdly bent
To tempt your own due punishment ;
And, like your whimsy'd chariots, draw
The boys to course you without law;
As if the art you have so long
Profess'd, of making old dogs young,

In

you had virtue to renew p Not only youth but childhood too.

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60

Can

you, that understand all books, By judging only with your looks,

Resolve all problems with

your face,

As others do with B's and A's;

Unriddle all that mankind knows

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With solid bending of your brows;
All arts and sciences advance

With screwing of your countenance,

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And with a penetrating eye

Into the abstrusest learning pry;

Know more of any trade b' a hint

[レ]

Than those that have been bred up in 't,
And yet have no art, true, or false,

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To help your own bad naturals?

But still the more you strive t' appear,

Are found to be the wretcheder:

For fools are known by looking wise,

As men find woodcocks by their eyes.

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Hence 'tis that 'cause y' have gain'd o' th' college

A quarter share (at most) of knowledge,

And brought in none, but spent repute,
Y' assume a pow'r as absolute

To judge, and censure, and control,
As if you were the sole Sir Poll,

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