He had a weapon keen and fierce,
That through a bull-hide shield would pierce,
And cut it in a thousand pieces,

Though tougher than the knight of Greece his,

For well-sol'd boots, no less than fights;

They ow'd that glory only to

His ancestor, that made them so.

Fast friend he was to reformation,

Until 'twas worn quite out of fashion,
Next rectifier of wry law,

430

And would make three to cure one flaw.
Learned he was, and could take note,
Transcribe, collect, translate, and quote.
But preaching was his chiefest talent,
Or argument, in which b'ing valiant,

405

As the east and west sides of the map of the moon are situate, upon astronomical reasons, on the contrary sides of those points in a map of any portion of the earth, in order to avoid confusion in referring the figures to their prototypes, I distinguish the east and west points by considering them as on the right or left hand, according as the north or south sides of the moon are placed uppermost.

He used to lay about and stickle,
Like ram, or bull, at conventicle:

For disputants, like rams and bulls,

Do fight with arms that spring from sculls. 440
Last Colon came, bold man of war,
Destin'd to blows by fatal star;
Right expert in command of horse,
But cruel, and without remorse.
That which of Centaur long ago
Was said, and has been wrested to

445

441. If the map of the moon be so placed that the side which is on the left hand of the north be uppermost, the whole of its shaded part will exhibit a butcher-like character fronting the south: This is Colon, whose figure may be seen facing the left hand by turning the figure of Cerdon (number 21) upside down. The fatal star of 442 may allude to the numerous spots of bright light with which his person is marked, or rather perhaps to the strong explosion of light resembling a star, which is introduced in figure 33, post, as situate just before Colon's chin, and to which very frequent references are made hereafter. The lower part of Colon's figure, as viewed north uppermost, may be fancied to resemble a horse, a hog, a neat, a cow or a pig, and so explain the various allusions in the poet's description of Colon, whose name perhaps is derived from the colon stop (:::) which may be seen scatter'd over the shadows that constitute his person; while his head and face, being marked with wheals of light, may explain the blows mentioned in 442.

Some other knights, was true of this,
He and his horse were of a piece.
One spirit did inform them both,
The self-same vigour, fury, wroth:
Yet he was much the rougher part,
And always had a harder heart;

Sturdy he was, and no less able
Than Hercules to clean a stable;

As great a drover, and as great

450

457

(After th' had almost por❜d out their eyes)

Did very learnedly decide

'The bus'ness on the horse's side,

470

And prov'd not only horse, but cows,
Nay pigs, were of the elder house:
For beasts, when man was but a piece
Of earth himself, did th' earth possess.
These worthies were the chief that led

The combatants, each in the head
Of his command, with arms and rage,
Ready, and longing to engage,

475

The num'rous rabble was drawn out

Of several counties round about,
From villages remote, and shires,
Of east and western hemispheres:
From foreign parishes and regions,
Of diff'rent manners, speech, religions,
Came men and mastiffs: some to fight
For fame and honour, some for sight.
And now the field of death, the lists
Were enter'd by antagonists,

And blood was ready to be broach'd;
When Hudibras in haste approach'd,

480

485

490

479. The rabble may be referred to the other numerous appearances of men and dogs exhibited by other parts of the moon's disk, which are not easy to be represented in figures, but which the imagination cannot fail to trace out in the map of the moon.

487. The lists may refer to the circle itself of the moon's circumference.

489. The reader being now made acquainted with the principal characters introduced in the poem, is requested, in his progress to the end of it, to carry them and their several relative positions in his memory; to compare them frequently with the map of the moon in the frontispiece, and particularly with the lines of the text printed in italics; and to observe further that the poet, in the varied actions which he successively puts them into, uses the liberty of considering the different parts of their bodies as

With squire and weapons to attack 'em:
But first thus from his horse bespake 'em.
What rage, O citizens! what fury

Doth you to these dire actions hurry?

constituting parts of other bodies, and so reciprocally of all of them; which being understood, it is now a proper time to remark, that, in thus putting these characters into action, the poet, far from indulging an arbitrary or capricious fancy, has in fact a no less important object in view, than to describe the different librations of the moon, from east to west or from north to south; and that the successive or alternate victory and defeat of the different heroes of the piece, at the same time that they correspond with the ascendency or depression of different parts of the moon's margin, are figurative also of the manner in which different parts of the moon are alternately darkened or illuminated. The lines 807, 833 and 855 are particularly illustrative of the former of these observations; and lines 160, 287, 333, 360, 413, 735 and 909, of the latter; and indeed the allusions to both are so very frequent throughout the whole poem, that I shall henceforth refrain from noticing them. I have also here to remark another thing of equal importance, and remark it likewise once for all; namely, that as it is well known the rise and fall of the tides have a relation to the varied appearances of the moon (whatever may be the cause of that relation), so it is to be noted throughout the poem, that there are frequent allusions to the tides, their motion, their power and their variation; as in lines 226, 319, 416, 458, 461 et passim.