Ere I can own you, here i' th' pound.
Where, if ye're sought, you may be found;
And in the mean time I must pay
For all your provender and hay.
Quoth he, It stands me much upon 705
T' enervate this objection,
And prove myself, by topic clear,
No gelding, as you would infer.
Loss of virility's averr'd
To be the cause of loss of beard,[1]710
That does, like embryo in the womb,
Abortive on the chin become:
This first a woman did invent,
In envy of man's ornament:
Semiramis of Babylon,715
Who first of all cut men o' th' stone.[2]
To mar their beards, and laid foundation
Of sow-geldering operation:
Look on this beard, and tell me whether
Eunuchs wear such, or geldings either? 720
Next it appears I am no horse,
That I can argue and discourse,
Have but two legs, and ne'er a tail.
Quoth she, That nothing will avail;
For some philosophers of late here, 725
Write men have four legs by nature,[3]
And that 'tis custom makes them go
Erroneously upon but two;
As 'twas in Germany made good,
B' a boy that lost himself in a wood;730
- ↑ See the note on line 114 of this Canto.
- ↑ Semiramis, queen of Assyria, is reputed to be the first that invented eunuchs: Semiramis teneros mares castravit omnium prima (Am. Marcellinus, i, 24), which is thought to be somewhat strange in a lady of her constitution, who is said to have received horses into her embrace. But the poet means to laugh at Dr Bulwer, who in his Artificial Changeling, scene 21, has many strange stories; and in page 208, says, "Nature gave to mankind a beard, that I might remain an index in the face of the masculine generative faculty."
- ↑ Sir Kenelm Digby, in his book of Bodies, has the well-known story of the wild German boy, who went on all fours, was overgrown with hair, and lived among the wild beasts; the credibility and truth of which he endeavours to establish by several natural reasons. See also Tatler, No. 105.
