Whachum shall justify 't t' your face,
And prove he was upon the place:
He play'd the Saltinbancho's part,
Transform'd t' a Frenchman by my art;

1005

v. 1007, 1008. He play'd the Saltinbancho's part,—Transform'd t'a Frenchman by my art]

So on they amble to the place,

Where Monsieur spake with a boon-grace.
Begar me kill you all, and den

Presan make you alive agen;
Wi dis me do all de gran cure,

De pock, de scab, de calenture;

Me make de man strong, pour de wench,

(Then riseth capon from the bench)

Look you me now, do you not see

Dead yesterday, now live dey be,

Four boon, dey leap, dey dance, dey sing,

Ma foy, and do de t' oder ting;

Begar good medicine do all dis.

Sham Second Part, p. 37, 38.

Ibid. Saltinbancho, a quack or mountebank; from saltimbanque,

a French word of Italian derivation. (ED.)

v. 1009. He stole your cloak, and pick'd your pocket] Still alluding to the Sham Second Part, (p. 63, 64.)

At last, as if't had been allotted,

The 'Squires ('twas said) were shrewdly potted;

And sleep they must: then down on mat
They threw themselves, left cloak and hat;

But subtle quack, and crafty crew

Slept not, they'd something else to do;

In the mean while Quack was not idle
(Cunning as horse, had bit o' th' bridle ;)
The damsel (one that would be thriving)
In the 'Squires' pockets fell to diving.

Their cloaks were packt up 'mongst the luggage,
(Thus men are serv'd, when they are sluggish)

The gates but newly open'd were,

All things were hush'd, and coast was clear;

And so unseen they huddle out,

Into the street, then wheel about.

He stole your cloak, and pick'd your pocket,
Chous'd and caldes'd ye like a blockhead, 1010
And what you lost I can produce,

If you deny it, here i' th' house.

Quoth Hudibras,-I do believe,
That argument's demonstrative;

Ralpho, bear witness, and go fetch us 1015
A constable to seize the wretches:

For though th' are both false knaves and cheats,
Impostors, jugglers, counterfeits,

I'll make them serve for perpendiculars,
As true as e'er were us'd by bricklayers. 1020
They're guilty by their own confessions
Of felony, and at the Sessions

Upon the bench I will so handle 'em
That the vibration of this pendulum

v. 1010.caldes'd ye] A word of his own coining, and signifies putting the fortune-teller upon you, called Chaldeans, or Egyptians. (Mr. W.)

Ibid.

Asham'd that men so learn'd and wise,
Should be caldes'd by gnats and flies.

Elephant in the Moon, Butler's Genuine Remains,
Vol. I. (ED.)

v. 1015, 1016. Ralpho, bear witness, and go fetch us-A constable to seize the wretches] This was not like the mock quarrel between Subtle and Face, in Ben Jonson's Alchymist, (vol. 1. p. 530. edit. 1640.)

Away, this brach! I'll bring thee, rogue, within

The statute of sorcery, tricessimo tertio

Of Harry the Eighth: ay, and perhaps thy neck

Within a noose, for laundring gold, and barbing it.

v. 1024. That the vibration, &c.] *The device of the vibration of a pendulum, was intended to settle a certain measure of ells and yards, &c. (that should have its foundation in nature) all the world over; for

Shall make all taylor's yards of one
Unanimous opinion:

A thing he long has vapour'd of,
But now shall make it out by proof.

Quoth Sidrophel,—I do not doubt
To find friends that will bear me out:
Nor have I hazarded my art,

And neck, so long on the State's part,
To be expos'd i' th' end to suffer,
By such a braggadocio huffer.

1025

1030

Huffer! (quoth Hudibras,)-this sword 1035
Shall down thy false throat cram that word.
Ralpho, make haste, and call an officer,
To apprehend this Stygian sophister:
Meanwhile I'll hold 'em at a bay,

Lest he and Whachum run away.

1040

by swinging a weight at the end of a string, and calculating (by the motion of the sun, or any star) how long the vibration would last, in proportion to the length of the string, and weight of the pendulum; they thought to reduce it back again, and from any part of time compute the exact length of any string that must necessarily vibrate in so much space of time so that if a man should ask in China for a quarter of an hour of sattin, or taffeta, they would know perfectly what it meant; and all mankind learn a new way to measure things, no more by the yard, foot, or inch, but by the hour, quarter, and minute." (See experiments concerning the vibrations of pendulums, by Dr. Derham, Philosophical Transactions, vol. 3. numb. 440. p. 201.)

Ibid. By which he had compos'd a pedlar's jargon,

For all the world to learn and use in bargain,

An universal canting idiom,

To understand the swinging pendulum

And to communicate in all designs,

With the Eastern virtuoso-mandarins.

Elephant in the Moon, Butler's Genuine Remains,

Vol. I. (ED.)

But Sidrophel, who from th' aspect
Of Hudibras, did now erect
A figure worse portending far,
Than that of most malignant star,

Believ'd it now the fittest moment,

1045

To shun the danger that might come on't,

While Hudibras was all alone,

And he and Whachum, two to one:

This being resolv'd, he spy'd by chance,
Behind the door an iron lance,

That many a sturdy limb had gor'd,

And legs, and loins, and shoulders bor'd ;
He snatch'd it up, and made a pass,
To make his way through Hudibras.
Whachum had got a fire-fork,

With which he vow'd to do his work.
But Hudibras was well prepar'd,
And stoutly stood upon his guard:
He put by Sidrophello's thrust,
And in right manfully he rush'd;
The weapon from his gripe he wrung,

And laid him on the earth along.
Whachum his sea-coal prong threw by,
And basely turn'd his back to fly;
But Hudibras gave him a twitch

As quick as light'ning in the breech;

1050

1055

1060

1065

v. 1066, 1067. in the breech,-Just in the place where honour's lodg'd] Of this opinion was Shamont, when the Duke of Genoa struck him. (See Nice Valour, or the Passionate Madman, act 2. Beaumont and Fletcher's Works, part 2. p. 496.) But Lapet the coward was of a different one; see act 3. p. 497.

Just in the place where honour's lodg'd,
As wise philosophers have judg'd,
Because a kick in that part more

Hurts honour, than deep wounds before. 1070
Quoth Hudibras,-The stars determine
You are my prisoners, base vermin:
Could they not tell you so, as well
As what I came to know, foretel?
By this what cheats you are we find,
That in your own concerns are blind;
Your lives are now at my dispose,
To be redeem'd by fine or blows:

Lap. I have been ruminating with myself,

What honour a man loses by a kick;

Why, what's a kick? the fury of a foot,

Whose indignation commonly is stampt

Upon the hinder quarter of a man:

Which is a place very unfit for honour,

The world will confess so much:

Then what disgrace, I pray, does that part suffer,

Where honour never comes? I'd fain know that.

This being well forc'd and urg'd, may have the power

To move most gallants to take kicks in time,
And spurn out the duelloes out o' th' kingdom;
For they that stand upon their honour most,
When they conceive there is no honour lost ;-
As by a table that I have invented
For that purpose alone, shall appear plainly,
Which shews the vanity of all blows at large,
And with what ease they may be took of all sides,

Numb'ring but twice over the letters patience,

From P.A. to C. E.---I doubt not but in small time

To see a dissolution of all bloodshed;

If the Reformed Kick do but once get up;

1075

v. 1075, 1076. By this what cheats you are we find ;-That in your own concerns are blind] Dr. James Young observes, (Sidrophel Vapulans, p. 30.) "that their ignorance in their own affairs, misfortunes, and fates, before they happen, proves them unable to foretel that of