PART II. CANTO III.[1]
OUBTLESS the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated, as to cheat;[2]
As lookers-on feel most delight,
That least perceive a juggler's slight,
And still the less they understand,5
The more th' admire his slight of hand.
Some with a noise, and greasy light,
Are snapt, as men catch larks by night,[3]
Ensnar'd and hamper'd by the soul,
As nooses by the legs catch fowl.[4]10
Some, with a med'cine and receipt,
Are drawn to nibble at the bait;[5]
- ↑ As the subject of this canto is the dispute between Hudibras and an astrologer, it is prefaced by some reflections on the credulity of men, which exposes them to the artifices of cheats and impostors, not only to such as lawyers, physicians, and divines, but even astrologers, wizards, and fortune-tellers. Dr James Young, in his Sidrophel Vapulans, etc. (p. 35), tells a good tale of an astrologer begging Pope Gregory the Seventh (who encouraged his art) to assign it a patron saint, and being left to choose for himself, did so blindfold, and laid his hand on the image of the Devil in combat with St Michael. He does not say whether the astrologer was content, or whether the Holy Father confirmed his choice.
- ↑ This famous couplet is enlarged on by Swift, in his Tale of a Tub, in treating of the pleasures of mental delusion, where he says that the happiness of life consists in being well deceived.
- ↑ This alludes to the morning and evening lectures, which, in those times of pretended reformation and godliness, were delivered by candle-light, in many churches, during a great part of the year. To maintain and frequent these, was deemed the greatest evidence of religion and sanctity. The gifted preachers were very loud. The simile is taken from the method of catching larks at night, in some countries, by means of a bell and a lanthorn: that is, by first alarming them, and then blinding them with a light, so that they arc easily caught.
- ↑ Woodcocks, and some other birds, are caught in springes.
- ↑ Are cheated by quacks who boast of nostrums and infallible receipts.
