And pardon'd for some great offence,[1]
With which he's willing to dispense,
First has him laid upon his belly,
Then beaten back and side t' a jelly;[2]
That done, he rises, humbly bows, 245
And gives thanks for the princely blows;
Departs not meanly proud, and boasting
Of his magnificent rib-roasting.
The beaten soldier proves most manful,
That, like his sword, endures the anvil,250
And justly 's held more formidable,
The more his valour's malleable:
But he that fears a bastinado,
Will run away from his own shadow:[3]
And though I'm now in durance fast,255
By our own party basely cast,[4]
Ransom, exchange, parole, refus'd,
And worse than by the en'my is'd;
In close catasta[5] shut, past hope
Of wit or valour to elope;260
As beards, the nearer that they tend
To th' earth, still grow more reverend;
And cannons shoot the higher pitches,
The lower we let down their breeches;[6]
I'll make this low dejected fate 265
Advance me to a greater height.
Quoth she, Y' have almost made m' in love
With that which did my pity move.
- ↑ In the editions of 1664, this and the following line read thus:
"To his good grace, for some offence
Forfeit before, and pardon'd since." - ↑ This story is told in Le Blanc's Travels, Part ii. ch. 4.
- ↑ The fury of Bucephalus proceeded from the fear of his own shadow. See Rabelais, vol. i. c. 14.
- ↑ This was the chief complaint of the Presbyterians and Parliamentary party, when the Independents and the army ousted them from their misused supremacy; and it led to their negotiations with the King, their espousal of the cause of his son, and ultimately to his restoration as Charles the Second.
- ↑ A cage or prison wherein the Romans exposed slaves for sale. See Persius, vi. 76.
- ↑ See note 2, p. 39, supra.
