VOL. 11.

HUDIBRAS.

PART II. CANTO I.

A

ARGUMENT.

The Knight, by damnable Magician,
Being cast illegally in prison;

Love brings his action on the case,
And lays it upon Hudibras.

How he receives the Lady's visit,
And cunningly solicits his suit,
Which she defers; yet on parole,
Redeems him from th' inchanted hole,

But now, t'observe romantique method,
Let bloody steel a-while be sheathed;
And all those harsh and rugged sounds
Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds,

ARGUMENT, ver. 1. and 2. Thus altered 1674, restored 1704.
The Knight being clapp'd by th' heels in prison,

v. 3. Love brings his action on the case] An action on the case, is a writ brought against any one, for an offence done without force, and by law not specially provided for. See Manley's Interpreter; Jacob's Law Dictionary; Bailey's Dictionary.

v. 5. How he receives, &c.] How he revi's, &c. In the two first edi tions of 1664.

CANTO, v. 1. But now, t' observe, &c.] The beginning of this Second Part may perhaps seem strange and abrupt to those who do not know, that it was written on purpose in imitation of Virgil, who begins

Exchang'd to love's more gentle style,

To let our reader breathe a-while:

In which that we may be as brief as

Is possible, by way of preface.

Is 't not enough to make one strange,

5

That some men's fancies should ne'er change, 10

But make all people do, and say,

The same things still the self-same way?

Some writers make all ladies purloin'd,

And knights pursuing like a whirlwind;

Others make all their knights, in fits

Of jealousy, to lose their wits;

15

the 4th Book of his Eneids in the very same manner, At Regina gravi,
&c. And this is enough to satisfy the curiosity of those, who believe,
that invention and fancy ought to be measured (like cases in law) by
precedents, or else they are in the power of the critic.

v. 2. Altered to Let rusty steel 1674, 1684, &c. to trusty steel 1700,

restored 1704.

v. 3. And the three following lines stood in the two first editions of

1664, as follow:

And unto love turn we our style,

To let our readers breathe a-while,

By this time tir'd with th' horrid sounds,

Of blows, and cuts, and blood, and wounds.

v. 9. Is't not enough to make one strange] So some speak in the West
of England, for to make one wonder. (Mr. D.)

v. 10. That some men's fancies] That a man's fancy, in the two

first editions of 1664.

v. 13, 14. Some writers make all ladies purloin'd—And knights pur-
suing like a whirlwind] Alluding, probably, to Don Quixote's account of
the inchanted Dulcinea's flying from him like a whirlwind, in Montesino's
Cave; (see Don Quixote, vol. 3. chap 23. p. 228.) or to other romance
writers The author of the Grand Cyrus represents Mandane, as stolen
by three princes, at different times, and Cyrus pursuing them from place
to place. The like in Cassandra, and Cleopatra.

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