26
HUDIBRAS.
[PART I.
He Anthroposophus,[1] and Floud,
And Jacob Behmen understood;
Knew many an amulet and charm,
That would do neither good nor harm;
In Rosicrucian lore as learned,[2] 545
As he that verè adeptus[3] earned.
He understood the speech of birds[4]
As well as they themselves do words;
Could tell what subtlest parrots mean,
That speak and think contrary clean;[5] 550
"What member 'tis of whom they talk,
When they cry Rope—and Walk, Knave, walk.[6]
- ↑ A nickname given to Dr Vaughan, author of a discourse on the condition of man after death, entitled, Anthroposophia theomagica,—which, according to Dean Swift, is "a piece of the most unintelligible fustian that perhaps was ever published in any language." Robert Floud (or Fludd), son of Sir Thomas Floud, Treasurer of War to Queen Elizabeth, was Doctor of Physic, and devoted to occult philosophy. He wrote an apology for the Rosicrucians, also a system of physics, called the Mosaic Philosophy, and many other mystical works, to the extent of 6 vols, folio. Jacob Behmen was an enthusiast of the same period, and wrote unintelligibly in mystical terms, Mr Law, who revived some of his notions, calls him a Theosopher.
- ↑ The Rosicrucians were a sect of hermetical philosophers. They owed their origin to a German, named Christian Rosenkreuz, but frequently went by other names, such as the Illuminati, the Immortales, the Invisible Brothers. Their learning had a great mixture of enthusiasm; and as Lemery, the famous chymist, says, "it was an art without an art, whose beginning was lying, whose middle was labour, and whose end was beggary."
- ↑ The title assumed by alchemists, who pretended to have discovered the philosopher's stone.
- ↑ Porphyry, De Abstinentiâ, lib. iii. cap. 3, contends that animals have a language, and that men may understand it; and the author of the Targum on Esther says, that Solomon understood the speech of birds.
- ↑ In allusion, no doubt, to the story of Henry the Eighth's parrot, which falling into the Thames, cried out, A boat, twenty pounds for a boat, and was saved by a waterman, who on restoring him to the king claimed the reward. But on an appeal to the parrot he exclaimed. Give the knave a groat.
- ↑ Alluding probably to Judge Tomlinson, who in a ludicrous speech, on swearing in the Sheriffs, said: "You are the chief executioners of sentences upon malefactors, Mr Sheriffs; therefore I shall entreat a favour of you. I have a kinsman, a rope-maker; and as I know you will have many occasions during the year for his services, I commend him to you." A satirical tract was published by Edw. Gayton, probably levelled at Colonel Hewson, with this title, "Walk, knaves, walk: a discourse intended to have been spoken at court," &c.
