Quoth Ralpho, Honour's but a word
To swear by only in a lord:[1]390
In other men 'tis but a huff
To vapour with, instead of proof;
That like a wen looks big and swells,
Is senseless, and just nothing else.[2]
Let it, quoth he, be what it will,395
It has the world's opinion still.
But as men are not wise, that run
The slightest hazard they may shun;
There may a medium be found out
To clear to all the world the doubt;400
And that is, if a man may do't,
By proxy whipp'd, or substitute.[3]
Though nice and dark the point appear,
Quoth Ralph, it may hold up and clear.
That sinners may supply the place405
Of suffering saints, is a plain case.
Justice gives sentence, many times,
On one man for another's crimes.
- ↑ Peers, when they give judgment, are not sworn: they say only, upon my honour. See lines 262, 263, above.
- ↑ Ralpho was much of Falstaff's opinion with regard to honour. See Henry IV. Part I. Act v. sc. 1.
- ↑ We are told in the Tatler, No. 92, "that pages are chastised for the admonition of princes." See an account of Mr Murray of the bed-chamber, who was whipping-boy to King Charles I., in Burnet's Own Times (Bohn's edit. p. 99). Henry IV. of France, when absolved of his excommunication and heresy by Pope Clement VIII., received chastisement in the persons of his representatives, Messrs D'Ossat and Du Perron, afterwards Cardinals.
its peculiar properties are, that it will sustain without injury very heavy blows upon the body, D, E; but if broken at B, or C, the whole drop will burst into powder with great violence. If the tip, A, be broken off, the bubble will not burst.
