CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
277
For when there is that intercourse
Between divine and human pow'rs,
That all that we determine here 225
Commands obedience ev'rywhere;[1]
When penalties may be commuted[2]
For fines, or ears, and executed,
It follows, nothing binds so fast
As souls in pawn and mortgage past: 230
For oaths are th' only tests and scales[3]
Of right and wrong, and true and false;
And there's no other way to try
The doubts of law and justice by.
Quoth she, What is it you would swear? 235
There's no believing 'till I hear:
For, 'till they're understood, all tales,
Like nonsense, are not true nor false.
Quoth he, When I resolv'd t'obey
What you commanded th' other day, 240
And to perform my exercise,
As schools are wont, for your fair eyes;
T' avoid all scruples in the case,
I went to do't upon the place;
But as the castle is enchanted 245
By Sidrophel the witch, and haunted
With evil spirits, as you know,
Who took my Squire and me for two,[4]
Before I'd hardly time to lay
My weapons by, and disarray, 250
I heard a formidable noise,
Loud as the Stentrophonic voice,[5]
That roar'd far off. Dispatch and strip,
I'm ready with th' infernal whip,
That shall divest thy ribs of skin, 255
To expiate thy ling'ring sin;
Between divine and human pow'rs,
That all that we determine here 225
Commands obedience ev'rywhere;[1]
When penalties may be commuted[2]
For fines, or ears, and executed,
It follows, nothing binds so fast
As souls in pawn and mortgage past: 230
For oaths are th' only tests and scales[3]
Of right and wrong, and true and false;
And there's no other way to try
The doubts of law and justice by.
Quoth she, What is it you would swear? 235
There's no believing 'till I hear:
For, 'till they're understood, all tales,
Like nonsense, are not true nor false.
Quoth he, When I resolv'd t'obey
What you commanded th' other day, 240
And to perform my exercise,
As schools are wont, for your fair eyes;
T' avoid all scruples in the case,
I went to do't upon the place;
But as the castle is enchanted 245
By Sidrophel the witch, and haunted
With evil spirits, as you know,
Who took my Squire and me for two,[4]
Before I'd hardly time to lay
My weapons by, and disarray, 250
I heard a formidable noise,
Loud as the Stentrophonic voice,[5]
That roar'd far off. Dispatch and strip,
I'm ready with th' infernal whip,
That shall divest thy ribs of skin, 255
To expiate thy ling'ring sin;
- ↑ The reference is to the text:—"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven." Matthew xviii. 13.
- ↑ The Knight argues that, since temporal punishments may be mitigated and commuted, the best securities for truth and honesty are such oaths as his.
- ↑ Var. Seals in edition of 1678.
- ↑ For two evil and delinquent spirits.
- ↑ Sir Samuel Morland's speaking trumpet was so called after Homer's far-famed brazen-tongued Stentor. See Iliad, v. 785.
