And from a scavenger did come

To be a mighty prince in Rome:
And why may not this foul address
Presage in love the same success?

Then let us straight, to cleanse our wounds, 885 Advance in quest of nearest ponds;

And after, as we first design'd,

Swear I've perform'd what she enjoin'd.

ordered him the discipline of the horse-pond. (See Heath's Flagellum; or, Life of Oliver Cromwell, edit. 1672. p. 18.)

v. 887, 888. And after, as we first design'd,- Swear I've perform'd what she enjoin'd.] An honest resolution truly, and a natural result from their sophistical arguments in defence of perjury, lately debated by the Knight and his Squire: the Knight resolves to wash his face, and dirty his conscience: this is mighty agreeable to his politics, in which hypocrisy seems to be the predominant principle: he was no longer for reducing Ralpho to a whipping, but for deceiving the Widow by forswearing himself; and by the sequel we find he was as good as his word; part 3. canto 1. v. 167, &c. (Mr. B.)

HUDIBRAS.

PART II. CANTO III.

ARGUMENT.

The Knight, with various doubts possest,

To win the Lady goes in quest

Of Sidrophel, the Rosy-Crucian,

To know the dest❜nies' resolution;

With whom b'ing met, they both chop logick,

About the science astrologick;

Till falling from dispute to fight,

The Conj'rer's worsted by the Knight.

DOUBTLESS the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated, as to cheat:
As lookers-on feel most delight,

That least perceive a juggler's slight;

This whole Canto is designed to expose astrologers, fortune-tellers, and conjurers. In banter of whom, Dr. James Young (in his tract, intitled, Sidrophel Vapulans, &c. 1699. p. 35.) informs us, "That in the pontificate of some such holy father as Gregory the Seventh, a lover of the black art, one of the tribe craved of his Holiness a protector, or patron-saint for astrologers, like as other arts had. The good pontiff, willing to oblige a faculty he loved well, gave him the choice of all in Saint Peter's. The humble servant of Urania, depending upon the direction of good stars to a good angel, went to the choice hoodwinked, and groping among the images, the first he laid hand on was that of the Devil in combat with Saint Michael; had he chosen with his eyes open, he could not have met with a better protector for so diabolical an art."

And still the less they understand,
The more th' admire his slight of hand.
Some with a noise, and greasy light,
Are snapt, as men catch larks by night,
Ensnar'd and hamper'd by the soul,
As nooses by the legs catch fowl.
Some, with a med'cine, and receipt,
Are drawn to nibble at the bait;
And tho' it be a two-foot trout,
"Tis with a single hair pull'd out.

Others believe no voice t' an organ

So sweet as lawyer's in his bar-gown;
Until with subtle cobweb-cheats,

5

10

15

Th' are catch'd in knotted law, like nets;
In which, when once they are imbrangled,

The more they stir, the more they're tangled; 20

'Twas a custom in Alexandria formerly, for astrologers to pay a certain tribute, which they called Fool's-Pence, because it was taken from the gains which astrologers made by their own ingenious folly, and credulous dotage of their admirers. (Turkish Spy, vol. 8. book 4. chap. 10.) See judicial astrology exposed by Cervantes, Don Quixote, vol. 3. chap. 25.

v. 3, 4. As lookers-on feel most delight—That least perceive a juggler's slight.] See the art of juggling exposed, Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, book 13. chap. 22 to 34 inclusive.

v. 7. Some with a noise, and greasy light, Are snapt.] Alluding to the morning and evening lectures of the saints, which were delivered by candle-light during a great part of the year. (ED.)

v. 8.

Baily's Dictionary.

Ibid.

as men catch larks by night.] By the low bell. See

Her beauty, and her drum, to foes

Did cause amazement double ;

As timorous larks amazed are

With light and with a low-bell.

Grubb's St. George for England, 1688. (ED.)