Or dreadful comet, he hath done
By Inward Light, a way as good,
And easy to be understood: 580
But with more lucky hit than those
That use to make the stars depose,
Like knights o' th' post,[1] and falsely charge
Upon themselves what others forge;
As if they were consenting to 585
All mischief in the world men do:
Or, like the devil, did tempt and sway 'em
To rogueries, and then betray 'em.
They'll search a planet's house, to know
Who broke and robb'd a house below; 590
Examine Venus and the Moon,
Who stole a thimble and a spoon:[2]
And tho' they nothing will confess,
Yet by their very looks can guess,
And tell what guilty aspect bodes, 595
Who stole, and who received the goods.
They'll question Mars, and, by his look,
Detect who 'twas that nimm'd a cloak;
Make Mercury confess, and 'peach
Those thieves which he himself did teach.[3] 600
They'll find, i' th' physiognomies
O' th' planets, all men's destinies;
Like him that took the doctor's bill,
And swallow'd it instead o' th' pill.[4]
Cast the nativity o' th' question,[5] 605
And from positions to be guest on,
- ↑ Knights of the post were infamous persons, who attended the courts of justice, to swear for hire anything that might be required, and even to confess themselves guilty of crimes, upon sufficient remuneration: they acquired the designation from their habit of loitering at the posts on which the sheriffs' proclamations were affixed.
- ↑ Alluding to the old notion, that the moon was the repository of all things that were lost or stolen.
- ↑ Mercury is the god of thieves, and Mars of pirates.
- ↑ This alludes to a well-known story told in Henry Stephens's apology for Herodotus. A physician, having prescribed for a countryman, gave him the paper, desiring him to take it, which he did literally, wrapping it up like a bolus, and was cured.
- ↑ In casting a nativity, astrologers considered it necessary to have the exact time of birth; but in the absence of this, the position of the heavens at the minute the question was asked was taken as a substitute.
