For as ovation was allow'd
For conquest purchas'd without blood;
So men decree those lesser shows 735
For vict'ry gotten without blows.
By dint of sharp hard words, which some
Give battle with, and overcome;
These mounted in a chair-curule,
Which moderns call a cucking-stool,[1] 740
March proudly to the river's side,
And o'er the waves in triumph ride;
Like dukes of Venice, who are said
The Adriatic sea to wed;[2]
And have a gentler wife[3] than those 745
For whom the state decrees those shows.
But both are heathenish, and come
From th' whores of Babylon and Rome,
And by the saints should be withstood,
As antichristian and lewd; 750
And we, as such, should now contribute
Our utmost strugglings to prohibit.[4]
This said, they both advanc'd,[5] and rode
A dog-trot through the bawling crowd
T' attack the leader, and still prest 755
'Till they approach'd him breast to breast:
Then Hudibras, with face and hand,
Made signs for silence; which obtain'd,
What means, quoth he, this devil's procession
With men of orthodox profession? 760
- ↑ Also called ducking-stool and other names. The custom of ducking female shrews in the water was common in many parts of England and Scotland. Such stools consisted of a chair affixed to the end of a long pole or lever, by which it was immersed in the water, often some stinking pool. In some places the chair was suspended by a chain or a rope, and so lowered from a bridge. For a full account of this once legal practice, see Brand's Popular Antiquities (Bohn's edit.), vol. iii. p. 103, et seq.
- ↑ This ceremony is performed on Ascension-day. It was instituted in 1174, by Pope Alexander III., who gave the Doge a gold ring from his finger in token of the victory achieved by the Venetian fleet over Barbarossa; desiring him to commemorate the event annually by throwing a circular ring into the Adriatic. The Doge throws a ring into the sea, while repeating the words, "Desponsamus te, mare, in signum veri et perpetui dominii."
- ↑ Butler intimates that the sea is less terrible than a scolding wife.
- ↑ "Strugglings" was one of the cant terms for efforts.
- ↑ Grey compares this advance of Hudibras and his squire to the attack
