chine, troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with the spavins, raid with the yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, sway'd in the back, and with a half check'd bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather, which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots; one girt six times pieced, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name fairly set down in studs, and here and there pierced with packthread." V. 430. Or mended pace, than Spaniard whipp'd.] Alluding to the story, in one of L'Estrange's Fables, of the Spaniard under the lash, who made a point of honour of it not to mend his pace for the saving of his earcass, and so marched his stage with as much gravity as if he had been upon a procession, insomuch that one of the spectators advised him to consider, that the longer he was upon the way the longer he must be under the scourge, and the more haste he made, the sooner he would be out of his pain." Noble Sir," says the Spaniard, " I kiss your hand for your courtesy, but it is below the spirit of a man to run like a dog: if ever it should be your fortune to fall under the same discipline, you shall have my consent to walk your course at what rate you please yourself; but in the mean time, with your good favour, I shall make bold to use my own liberty." V. 433-4. That Caesar's horse, who, as fame goes, Had corns upon his feet and toes.] Suetonius relates in his History of the Cæsars, that Julius Cæsar had a horse with feet like a man's. V. 457. A squire he had, whose name was Ralph.] Sir Roger L'Estrange, in his Key to Hudibras, says, "This famous Squire was one Isaac Robinson, a zealous butcher in Moorfields, who was always contriving some new querpo cut in church government;" but in another Key it is observed, " that Hudibras's squire was one Pemble, a tailor, and one of the committee of sequestrators." As Butler borrowed the name of his knight from Spenser, it is probable he named his squire from Ralph, the grocer's apprentice in Beaumont and Fletcher's play called the Knight of the Burning Pestle. It might be asked, how it comes to pass that the knight makes choice of a squire of different principles from his own? and why the poet afterwards says, Never did trusty squire with knight, Or knight with squire, e'er jump more right; As well as virtues, parts, and wit, when there is so manifest a disagreement in the princi→ pal part of their characters? To which it may be answered, that the end they proposed by those adventures was the same, and though they differed about circumstantials, they agreed to unite their forces against the established religion. The poet, by this piece of ma nagement, intended to show the joint concurrence of sectaries against all law and order at that time. Had the knight and his squire been in all occurrences of the one opinion, we should never have had those eloquent disputes about synods, oaths, consciences, &c. which are some of the chief beauties in the poem, and give us a wonderful insight into the character of those times: besides, this conduct was necessary to give an agreeable diversity of character to the hero of the piece. V. 466.-by birth a tailor.] We gather from contemporary writers, that most of the Knights of the Thimble of those times were inimical to the established church government. The Anabaptists of Munster, who committed such horrible excesses in Germany, had their origin in a tailor. Swift, in his Tale of a Tub, gives a description of the sect of tailors, so humorous and appropriate, that we cannot deny ourselves the satisfaction of placing it before our readers. "About this time [soon after the reformation] it happened that a sect arose, whose tenets obtained and spread far and wide in the grande monde, and among every body of good fashion. They worshipped a sort of idol, who, as their doctrine delivered, did daily create men by a kind of manufactory operation. This idol they placed in the highest part of the house, on an altar about three feet high. He was shown in the person of a Persian empe ror, sitting on a superficies, with his legs interwoven under him. This god had a goose for his ensign, whence it is that some men pretend to deduce his original from Jupiter Capitolinus. At his left hand, beneath his altar, hell seemed to open and catch at the animals the idol was creating: to prevent which, certain of his priests hourly flung in pieces of the uninformed mass or substance, and sometimes whole limbs already enlivened, which the horrid gulf insatiably devoured, terrible to behold. The goose was also held a subaltern divinity, or deus minorum gentium, before whose shrine was sacrificed that creature whose hourly food was human gore, and who is in so great repute abroad by being the delight and favourite of the Egyptian Cercopithecus. Millions of these animals were slaughtered every day to appease the hunger of that consuming deity. The chief idol was worshipped also as the inventor of the yard and needle: whether as the god of seamen, or on account of certain other mystical attributes, hath not been sufficiently clear." V. 467-8. The mighty Tyrian Queen, that gain'd, With subtle shreds, a tract of land.] Dido, daughter of Belus, king of Tyre, sailed to that part of Africa which is called Zeugitana, and bought there as much land as she could compass with a bull's hide, which she cut into small strips, and enclosed therewith a great quantity of ground, on which she built the city of Carthage. V. 471. From him descended cross-legg'd knights.] The Knights-templars had their effigies laid on their tombs with their legs crossed. Butler here alludes also to the tailor's posture in sitting at his work. V. 472. Fam'd for their faith, &c.] Obliged to trust much in their way of trade. V. 476-7-8. As the bold Trojan Knight, seen hell, Of golden bough, but true gold lace.] To understand the humour of this passage, it is proper to mention, that the tailors call that place hell, where they put all the cloth or cabbage they steal. The Trojan Knight, to whom he alludes, was Æneas, who consulting the Sybil concerning the method he should take to see his beloved father Anchises in the shades below, was accosted in the following terms: "Receive my counsel. In this neighbour grove Some call it gifts, and some new light.] The knight and squire entertained different theological opinions. The Independents and Anabaptists (of which sect Ralph probably was) pretended to great gifts, as they called them, by inspiration, and their preachers, though many of them could scarce read, were called gifted brethren. Some of the modern Methodists are no less fanatical and inflated than their Puritanical pre cursors. V. 487-8. Like commendation nine-pence crook'd With-To and from my love-it look'd.] Until the year 1696, when all money not milled was called in, a nine-penny piece of silver was as common as sixpences or shillings, and these nine-pences were usually bent as sixpences commonly are now; which bending was called to my love and from my love, and such nine-pences the common people gave or sent to their sweethearts, as tokens of love. V. 490. To look a gift-horse in the mouth.] Persons who receive a horse as a present are not likely to examine his mouth, by which his age may be known, with such care as a person that is going to buy a horse. V. 495-6. For saints themselves will sometimes be, Of gifts that cost them nothing, free.] Ignorance is often said to be the mother of presumption. The Cominonwealth fanatics exceeded even the reformers in Scotland of the preceding century in presumption and ignorance. A modern wit and scholar of the first order, speaking of them, says, every transaction of life was interlarded with scraps from Scripture, and their own names were lost in names adopted from the two testaments; Cromwell rebaptized his whole regiment after the posterity of Abraham, and heard the pedigree of our Saviour every day at roll call." The author of a tract, entitled "Sir John Birkenhead revived," ridicules these pretended saints in the following manner: "If these be saints, 'tis vain indeed To think there's good or evil; The world will soon be of this creed, Of all those monsters which we read None like to those now lately bred Crocodile and sycophant, V-499-10. He could deep mysteries unriddle, As easily as thread a needle.] There was no trait in the character of the Puritans more conspicuous than the alacrity with which they affected to resolve the profoundest mysteries of the Christian dispensation. The most awful and solemn subjects were discussed among them with as little gravity or reserve as if they had been discoursing of mere matters of trade, or the most ordinary concerns of human life; and therefore, when talking of religious subjects, they generally drew their metaphors from some of the handicrafts to which they belonged; as our poet in this place says of the squire, he could deep mysteries unriddle, as easily as thread a needle, which could have been no difficult matter for a man bred a tailor. Dr. Echard, (Contempt of the Clergy) makes mention of one of the fanatical preachers, who, discoursing about |