Hudibras ... With a life of the author, annotations, etc

Front matter

HUDIBRAS, BY SAMUEL BUTLER; WITH NOTES THE REV. TREADWAY RUSSEL NASH, D.D. A NEW EDITION, IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I Non deerunt fortasse vitilitigatores, qui calumnientur, partim leviorcs ease nugas, quam ut Theologum deceant, partim mordaciores, quam ut christians conveniant modestix. Erasm. Moria? Encom. praefat. LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. PRINTED BY W. NICOL, 51, PALL MALI MDCCCXXXV

ADVERTISEMENT.

. Little or no apology need be offered to the Public for presenting it with a new edition of Hudibras ; the poem ranks too high in English literature not to be welcomed if it appear in a correct text, legible type, and on good paper : ever since its first appearance it has been as a mirror in which an Englishman might have seen his face without becoming, Narcissus-like, enamoured of it ; such an honest looking-glass must ever be valuable, if there be worth in the aphorism of nosce teipsum. May it not in the present times be as useful as in any that are past ? Perhaps even in this enlightened age a little self-examination may be wholesome ; a man will take a glance of recog nition of himself if there be a glass in the room, and it may happen that some indication of the nascent symptoms of the wrinkles of treason, of the crows-feet of fanaticism, of the drawn-down mouth of hypocrisy, or of the superfluous hairs of self-conceit may startle the till then unconscious

Part I. Canto

I E VOL. I THE ARGUMENT. Sir Hudibras1 his passing worth, The manner how he sally'd forth ; His arms and equipage are shewn ; His horse's virtues and his own. Th' adventure of the bear and fiddle Is sung, but breaks off in the middle.2 1 Hudibras.] Butler probably took this name from Spencer's Fain- Queen, B. ii. C. ii. St. 17. He that made love unto the eldest dame, Was hight Sir Hudibras, an hardy man ; Yet not so good of deeds, as great of name, Which he by many rash adventures wan, Since errant arms to sew he first began. Geoffry of Monmouth mentions a British king of this name, though some have supposed it derived from the French, Hugo, Hu de Bras, signifying Hugh the powerful, or with the strong arm : thus Fortinbras, Firebras. In the Grub-street Journal, Col. Rolls, a Devonshire gentleman is said to be satirized under the character of Hudibras ; and it is as serted, that Hugh de Bras was the name of the old tutelar saint of that county ; but it is idle to look for personal reflexions in a poem designed for a general satire on hypocrisy, enthusiasm, and false learning. 2 breaks off in the middle.] Bishop Warburton observes very justly, that this is a ridicule on Ronsard's Franciade, and Sir Wil liam Davenant's Gondibert. HUDIBRAS.

Canto I

When civil fury first grew high,1 And men fell out, they knew not why ;2 1 When civil fury first grew kigk,] In the first edition of the first part of this poem, printed separately, we read dudgeon. But on the publication of the second part, when the first was re-printed with several additions and alterations, the word dudgeon was changed to fury ; as appears in a copy corrected by the author's own hand. The publisher in 1704, and the subsequent ones, have taken the liberty of correcting the author's copy, restored the word dudgeon, and many other readings : changing them, I think I may say, for the worse, in several passages. Indeed, while the Editor of 1704 replaces this word, and contends for it, he seems to shew its impropriety. " To take in " dudgeon," says he, " is inwardly to resent, a sort of grumbling in " the gizzard, and what was previous to actual fury."

Yet in the next lines we have men falling out, set together by the ears, and fighting. I doubt not but the inconsistency of these expressions occurred to the author, and induced him to change the word, that his sense might be clear, and the sera of his poem certain and uniform. — Dudgeon, in its primitive sense, signifies a dagger; and figuratively, such hatred and sullenness as occasion men to employ short concealed weapons. Some readers may be fond of the word dudgeon, as a burlesque term, and suitable, as they think, to the nature of the poem : but the judicious critic will observe, that the poet is not always in a drolling humour, and might not think fit to fall into it in the first line : he chooses his words not by the oddness or uncouthness of the sound, but by the propriety of their signification.

Besides, the word dudgeon, in the figurative sense, though not in its primitive one, is generally taken for a monoptote in the ablative case, to take in dudgeon, which might be another reason why the poet changed it into fury. See line 379. 2 And men fell out, they knew not why ;] Dr. Perrincheif 's Life of [part I, HUDIBRAS. 4 When hard words, jealousies, and fears, Set folks together by the ears,3 Charles I. says, " There will never be wanting, in any country, some " discontented spirits, and some designing craftsmen ; but when " these confusions began, the more part knew not wherefore they " were come together." 3 When hard words, jealousies, and fears, Set folks together by the ears,] Hard icords. — Probably the jargon and cant-words used by the Presbyterians, and other sectaries. They called themselves the elect, the saints, the predestinated : and their opponents they called Papists, Prelatists, ill-designing, reprobate, profligate, &c. &c. " In the body politic, when the spiritual and windy power moveth " the members of a commonwealth, and by strange and hard words " suffocates their understanding, it must needs thereby distract the " people, and either overwhelm the commonwealth with oppression, " or cast it into the fire of a civil war."

Hobbes. Jealousies. — Bishop Burnet, in the house of lords, on the first article of the impeachment of Sacheverel, says, " The true occasion " of the war was a jealousy, that a conduct of fifteen years had " given too much ground for ; and that was still kept up by a fatal " train of errors in every step." See also the king's speech Dec. 2, 1641. And fears. — Of superstition and Popery in the church, and of arbitrary power and tyranny in the state : and so prepossessed were many persons with these fears, that, like the hero of this poem, they would imagine a bear-baiting to be a deep design against the religion and liberty of the country. Lord Clarendon tells us, that the English were the happiest people under the sun, while the king was undisturbed in the administration of justice ; but a too much felicity had made them unmanageable by moderate government ; a long peace having softened almost all the noblesse into court pleasures, and made the commoners insolent by great plenty.

King Charles, in the fourth year of his reign, tells the lords, " We " have been willing so far to descend to the desires of our good " subjects, as fully to satisfie all moderate minds, and free them " from all just fears and jealousies." The words jealousies and fears, were bandied between the king and parliament in all their papers, before the absolute breaking out of the war. They were And made them fight, like mad or drunk, 5 For dame Religion as for Punk ;4 Whose honesty they all durst swear for, Tho' not a man of them knew wherefore : When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrounded With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded,6 10 used by the parliament to the king, in their petition for the militia, March 1, 1641-2; and by the king in his answer, " You speak of "jealousies and fears, lay your hands to your hearts and ask your " selves, whether I may not be disturbed with jealousies and fears."

And the parliament, in their declaration to the king at Newmarket, March 9, say, " Those fears and jealousies of ours which your majesty " thinks to be causeless, and without just ground, do necessarily " and clearly arise from those dangers and distempers into which " your evil councils have brought us : but those other fears and "jealousies of yours, have no foundation or subsistance in any " action, intention, or miscarriage of ours, but are merely grounded " on falsehood and malice." The terms had been used before by the Earl of Carlisle to James I. 14 Feb. 1623. " Nothing will more dishearten the envious maligners " of your majesty's felicity, and encourage your true hearted friends " and servants, than the removing those false fears and jealousies, " which are mere imaginary phantasms, and bodies of air easily dis " sipated, whensoever it shall please the sun of your majesty to shew " itself clearly in its native brightness, lustre, and goodness." 4 For dame Religion as for Punk ,-] From the Anglo-Saxon pung, it signifies a bawd, Anus instar corii ad ignem siccati.

(Skinner.) Sometimes scortum, scortillum. Sir John Suckling says, Religion now is a young mistress here, For which each man will fight and die at least : Let it alone awhile, and 'twill become A kind of married wife ; people will be Content to live with it in quietness. 5 When Gospel-Trumpeter, surrounded With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded,] Mr. Butler told Thomas Veal esquire, of Simons-hall, Gloucestershire, that the Puritans had [part I. 6 HUDIBRAS. And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, Was beat with fist, instead of a stick ;6 Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling, And out he rode a colonelling.7 a custom of putting their hands behind their ears, at sermons, and bending them forward, under pretence of hearing the better. He had seen five hundred or a thousand large ears pricked up as soon as the text was named.

Besides, they wore their hair very short, which shewed their ears the more. See Godwin's notes in Bodley library. Dr. Bulwer in his Anthropometamorphosis, or Artificial Change ling, tells us wonderful stories of the size of men's ears in some countries. — Pliny lib. 7- c. 2. speaks of a people on the borders of India, who covered themselves with their ears. And Purchas, in his Pilgrim, saith, that in the island Arucetto, there are men and women having ears of such bigness, that they lie upon one as a bed, and cover themselves with the other. I here mention the idle tales of these authors, because their works, together with Brown's Vulgar Errors, are the frequent object of our poet's satire. 6 And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, Was beat with fist, instead of a stick;] It is sufficiently known from the history of those times, that the seeds of rebellion were first sown, and afterwards cultivated, by the factious preachers in con venticles, and the seditious and schismatical lecturers, who had crept into many churches, especially about London.

" These men," says Lord Clarendon, " had, from the beginning of the parliament, in " fused seditious inclinations into the hearts of all men, against the " government in church and state : but after the raising an army, " and rejecting the king's overtures for peace, they contained them " selves within no bounds, but filled all the pulpits with alarms of " ruin and destruction, if a peace were offered or accepted." These preachers used violent action, and made the pulpit an instrument of sedition, as the drum was of war. Dr. South, in one of his sermons, says, " The pulpit supplied the field with sword-men, and the parlia " ment-house with incendiaries." 7 And out he rode a colonelling.] Some have imagined from hence, that by Hudibras, was intended Sir Samuel Luke of Bedfordshire. Sir Samuel was an active justice of the peace, chairman of the A Wight he was,8 whose very sight wou'd 15 Entitle him Mirror of Knight-hood ; 9 That never bent his stubborn knee1 To any thing but chivalry ; Nor put up blow, but that which laid Right worshipful on shoulder-blade : 2 20 Chief of domestic knights, and errant, Either for chartel3 or for warrant : Great on the bench, great in the saddle, That could as well bind o'er, as swaddle :* quarter sessions, colonel of a regiment of foot in the parliament army, and a committee-man of that county ; but the poet's satire is general, not personal. 9 A Wight he was, — ] Wight is originally a Saxon word, and sig nifies a person or being.

It is often used by Chaucer, and the old poets. Sometimes it means a witch or conjurer. » Mirror of Knighthood ;] A favourite title in romances. 1 That never bent his stubborn knee] Alluding to the Presbyterians, who refused to kneel at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; and insisted upon receiving it in a sitting or standing posture. See Baxter's Life, &c. &c. In some of the kirks in Scotland, the pews are so made, that it is very difficult for any one to kneel. 2 Nor put up blow, but that which laid Right worshipful on shoulder-blade :] That is, did not suffer a blow to pass unrevenged, except the one by which the king knighted him. « Either for chartel — ] For a challenge. He was a military as well as a civil officer — dp<p6repov €auiXevg r ayaBog Kparepog r aixpi]ri\g. II. iii. 179. Pope translates it, Great in the war, and great in arts of sway. //. iii. 236.

Plutarch tells us, that Alexander the Great was wonderfully de lighted with this line. * That' could as well bind o'er, as swaddle :] Swaddle. — That is to beat or cudgel, says Johnson; but the word in the Saxon, signifies HUDIBRAS. [part I. 8 Mighty he was at both of these, And styl'd of War as well as Peace. So some rats of amphibious nature, Are either for the land or water. But here our authors make a doubt, Whether he were more wise, or stout.* Some hold the one, and some the other ; But howsoe'er they make a pother, The diff'rence was so small, his brain Outweigh'd his rage but half a grain ; Which made some take him for a tool That knaves do work with, call'd a Fool ; And offer'd to lay wagers, that 25 30 35 As Montaigne, playing with his cat, Complains she thought him but an ass,6 Much more she wou'd Sir Hudibras : 40 to bind up, to try to heal by proper bandages and applications; hence the verb to swathe, and the adjective swaddling clothes ; the line therefore may signify, that his worship could either make peace, and heal disputes among his neighbours, or, if they could not agree, bind them over to the sessions for trial. 6 Whether he were more wise, or stout] Burlesques an usual strain of rhetorical flattery, when authors pretend to be puzzled which of their patrons' noble qualities they should give the preference to.

Something similar to this passage is the saying of Julius Capi tolinus, concerning the emperor Verus ; " melior orator quam " poeta, aut ut verius dicam pejor poeta quam orator." 6 As Montaigne, playing with his cat, Complains she thought him but an ass,] " When my cat and I," says Montaigne, " entertain each other with mutual apish tricks, as " playing with a garter, who knows but I make her more sport than " she makes me i shall I conclude her simple, who has her time to " begin or refuse sportiveness as freely as I myself. Nay, who " knows but she laughs at, and censures, my folly, for making her For that's the name our valiant knight To all his challenges did write. But they're mistaken very much, 'Tis plain enough he was no such ; We grant, although he had much wit, H' was very shy of using it ;7 45 As being loth to wear it out, And therefore bore it not about, Unless on holy-days, or so, As men their best apparel do. 50 Beside, 'tis known he could speak Greek As naturally as pigs squeek : That Latin was no more difficile, Than to a blackbird 'tis to whistle: Being rich in both, he never scanted His bounty unto such as wanted ; But much of either wou'd afford To many, that had not one word.

For Hebrew roots, although they're found To flourish most in barren ground,8 55 60 " sport, and pities me for understanding her no better ?" And of ani mals — " ils nous peuvent estimer betes, comme nous les estimons." 7 We grant, although he had muck wit, H'was very shy of using it;] The poet, in depicting our knight, blends together his great pretensions, and his real abilities ; giving him high encomiums on his affected character, and dashing them again with his true and natural imperfections. He was a pretended saint, but in fact a very great hypocrite ; a great champion, though an errant coward ; famed for learning, yet a shallow pedant. 8 For Hebrew roots, although they're found To flourish most in barren ground,] Some students in Hebrew have been very angry with these lines, and assert, that they have [part I. 10 HUDIBRAS.

He had such plenty, as suflic'd To make some think him circumcis'd ; And truly so, perhaps, he was, 'Tis many a pious Christian's case.9 He was in Logic a great critic," 65 Profoundly skill'd in Analytic ; He could distinguish, and divide A hair 'twixt south, and south-west side ; On either side he would dispute, Confute, change hands, and still confute f 70 He'd undertake to prove, by force Of argument, a man's no horse ; He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl, And that a Lord may be an owl ; done more to prevent the study of that language, than all the pro fessors have done to promote it. See a letter to the printer of the Diary, dated January 15, 1789, and signed John Ryland. The word for, here means, as to. 9 And truly so, perhaps, he was, 'Tis many a pious Christian's case.] In the first editions this couplet was differently expressed.

And truly so he was perhaps, Not as a proselyte, but for claps. Many vulgar, and some indecent phrases, were after corrected by Mr. Butler. And, indeed, as Mr. Cowley observes, in his Ode on Wit, 'tis just The author blush, there, where the reader must. ' He was in Logic a great critic,] In some following lines the abuses of human learning are finely satirized. 2 Confute, change hands, and still confute;] Carneades, the aca demic, having one day disputed at Rome very copiously in praise of justice, refuted every word on the morrow, by a train of contrary arguments.— Something similar is said of Cardinal Perron. A calf an Alderman, a goose a Justice,3 And rooks Committee-Men or Trustees.4 He'd run in debt by disputation, 75 And pay with ratiocination. All this by syllogism true, In mood and figure, he would do. 80 For Rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope : And when he happen'd to break off5 I' th' middle of his speech, or cough, s A calf an Alderman, a goose a Justice,] A doggrel Alexandrine placed in the first line of the couplet, as it is sometimes in heroic Alexandrines : thus Dryden, So all the use we make of heaven's discover'd will.

See his Religio Laid. 4 And rooks Committee-Men or Trustees.] A rook is a well-known black bird, said by the glossarists to be comix frugivora, and sup posed by them to devour the grain ; hence, by a figure, applied to sharpers and cheats. Thus the committee-men harassed and op pressed the country, devouring, in an arbitrary manner, the property of those they did not like, and this under the authority of parliament. Trustees are often mentioned by our poet. See p. 3. c. 1. 1. 1516. In Scobel's collection is an ordinance, 1649, for the sale of the royal lands in order to pay the army; the common soldiers pur chasing by regiments, like corporations, and having trustees for the whole. These trustees either purchased the soldiers' shares at a very small price, or sometimes cheated the officers and soldiers, by de taining these trust estates for their own use.

The same happened often with regard to the church lands : but 13 Ch. II. an act passed for restoring all advowsons, glebe-lands and tythes, &c. to his ma jesty's loyal subjects. 5 And wken he happen'd to break off I' th' middle of his speech, or cough, H' had hard ivords, ready to shew why, And tell what rules he did it by.] i. e. Aposiopesis — Quos ego — sed motos, &c. [part I. HUDIBRAS. 12 H had hard words, ready to shew why, 85 And tell what rules he did it by. Else, when with greatest art he spoke, You'd think he talk'd like other folk. For all a Rhetorician's rules Teach nothing but to name his tools. 90 His ordinary rate of speech In loftiness of sound was rich ; A Babylonish dialect, Which learned pedants much affect ; It was a parti-colour'd dress 35 Of patch'd and piebald languages : 'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin, Like fustian heretofore on satin.6 It had an odd promiscuous tone, As if h' had talk'd three parts in one ; 100 Which made some think, when he did gabble, Th' had heard three labourers of Babel ;7 Or cough. — The preachers of those days, looked upon coughing and hemming as ornaments of speech ; and when they printed their sermons, noted in the margin where the preacher coughed or hemm'd. This practice was not confined to England, for Olivier Maillard, a Cordelier, and famous preacher, printed a sermon at Brussels in the year 1500, and marked in the margin where the preacher hemm'd once or twice, or coughed.

See the French Notes. 6 Like fustian heretofore on satin.] The slashed sleeves and hose may be seen in the pictures of Dobson, Vandyke, and others : but one would conjecture from the word heretofore, that they were not in common wear in our poet's time. 7 Which made some think, when he did gabble, Th' had heard three labourers of Babel ;] In Dr. Donne's Satires, by Pope, we read, You prove yourself so able, Pity 1 you were not Druggerman at Babel ; Or Cerberus himself pronounce A leash of languages at once.8 This he as volubly would vent As if his stock would ne'er be spent : And truly, to support that charge, He had supplies as vast and large. For he could coin, or counterfeit New words, with little or no wit ; ' Words so debas'd and hard, no stone Was hard enough to touch them on ;' And when with hasty noise he spoke 'em, The ignorant for current took 'em. 105 110 For had they found a linguist half so good, I make no question but the tower had stood. 8 Or Cerberus himself pronounce A leash of languages at once.]

" Our Borderers, to this day, " speak a leash of languages (British, Saxon, and Danish) in one : " and it is hard to determine which of those three nations has the " greatest share in the motley breed." Camden's Britannia — Cum berland, p. 1010. Butler, in his character of a lawyer, p. 167. — says, " he over-runs Latin and French with greater barbarism than " the Goths did Italy and France ; and makes as mad a confusion of " language, by mixing both with English." Statius, rather ridicu lously, introduces Janus haranguing and complimenting Domitian with both his mouths, levat, ecce, supinas Hinc atque inde manus, geminaque haec voce profatur. 9 For he could coin, or counterfeit New words, with little or no wit ;] The presbyterians coined and composed many new words, such as out-goings, carryings-on^ no thingness, workings-out, gospel-walking times, secret ones, &c. &c. 1 Words so debas'd and hard, no stone Was hard enough to touch them on ;] This seems to be the right reading ; and alludes to the touch-stone.

Though Bishop Warburton conjectures, that tone ought to be read here instead of stone. That had the orator, who once 115 Did fill his mouth with pebble stones When he harangu'd, but known his phrase, He would have us'd no other ways.2 In Mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:3 For he, by geometric scale, 120 Could take the size of pots of ale ; Resolve, by sines and tangents straight, If bread or butter wanted weight ;4 And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike, by Algebra. 125 Beside, he was a shrewd Philosopher, And had read ev'ry text and gloss over : 2 That had the orator, who once Did fill his mouth with pebble stones When he harangu'd, but known his phrase, He would have us'd no other ways.] These lines are not found in the two first editions. They allude to the well known story of Demosthenes. 3 In mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater :] Erra Pater is the nick name of some ignorant astrologer.

A little paltry book of the rules of Erra Pater is still vended among the vulgar. I do not think that by Erra Pater, the poet meant William Lilly, but some contemptible person, to oppose to the great Tycho Brahe. Anticlimax was But ler's favourite figure, and one great machine of his drollery. 4 Resolve, by sines and tangents straight, If bread or butter wanted weight ;] He could, by trigonometry, discover the exact dimensions of a loaf of bread, or roll of butter. The poet likewise intimates that his hero was an over-officious ma gistrate, searching out little offences, and levying fines and for feitures upon them. See Talgol's speech in the next canto. Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath,5 He understood b' implicit faith : 130 Whatever Sceptic could enquire for; For every why he had a wherefore :6 Knew more than forty of them do, As far as words and terms could go.

All which he understood by rote, 135 And, as occasion serv'd, would quote ; No matter whether right or wrong, They might be either said or sung. His notions fitted things so well, That which was which he could not tell ;7 140 But oftentimes mistook the one For th' other, as great clerks have done. He could reduce all things to acts, And knew their natures by abstracts ; s » Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath,] If any copy would warrant it, I should read " author saith." 6 For every why he had a wherefore :] That is, he could elude one difficulty by proposing another, or answer one question by pro posing another. 7 His notions fitted things so well, That which was ichich he could not tell ;] He had a jumble of many confused notions in his head, which he could not apply to any useful purpose : or perhaps the poet alludes to those philosophers who took their ideas of substances to be the combinations of nature, and not the arbitrary workmanship of the human mind. 8 He could reduce all things to acts, And knew their natures by abstracts ;] A thing is in potentia, when it is possible, but does not actually exist ; a thing is in act, when it is not only possible, but does exist.

A thing is said to be reduced from power into act, when that which was only possible, begins really to exist : how far we can know the nature of things by abstracts, has long been a dispute. See Locke's Essay on the Where entity and quiddity, 145 The ghost of defunct bodies fly ; 9 Where Truth in person does appear, l Like words congeal'd in northern air.2 He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly.3 150 In school-divinity as able As he that hight irrefragable;4 human understanding ; and consult the old metaphysicians if you think it worth while. 9 Where entity and quiddity, The ghost of defunct bodies fly ;] A fine satire upon the ab stracted notions of the metaphysicians, calling the metaphysical natures the ghosts or shadows of real substances. ' Where Truth in person does appear,] Some authors have mistaken truth for a real thing or person, whereas it is nothing but a right method of putting those notions or images of things (in the understanding of man) into the same state and order, that their ori ginals hold in nature.

Thus Aristotle, Met. lib. 2. Unumquodque sicut se habet secundum esse, ita se habet secundum veritatem. 2 Like words congeal'd in northern air.] See Rabelais's Panta gruel, livre 4. ch. 56. which hint is improved, and drawn into a paper in the Tatler, No. 254. In Rabelais, Pantagruel throws upon deck three or four handfuls of frozen words, il en jecta sus le tillac trois ou quatre poignees : et y veids des parolles bien piquantes. 3 He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly.] The jest here is, giving, by a low and vulgar expression, an apt description of the science. In the old systems of logic, quid est quid was a common question. * As he that hight irrefragable;] Two lines originally followed in this place, which were afterwards omitted by the author in his corrected copy, viz. A second Thomas ; or at once To name them all, another Duns.