Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/102

Thou'st broke perfidiously thy oath,And not perform'd thy plighted troth,But spar'd thy renegado back,Where thou'dst so great a prize at stake,^[1] 260Which now the fates have order'd meFor penance and revenge, to flea,Unless thou presently make haste;Time is, time was!^[2]—and there it ceast.With which, tho' startled, I confess, 265Yet th' horror of the thing was lessThan the other dismal apprehensionOf interruption or prevention;And therefore, snatching up the rod,I laid upon my back a load, 270Resolv'd to spare no flesh and blood,To make my word and honour good;Till tir'd, and taking truce at length,For new recruits of breath and strength,I felt the blows still ply'd as fast, 275As if they'd been by lovers plac'd,In raptures of Platonic lashing,And chaste contemplative bardashing.^[3]When facing hastily about,To stand upon my guard and scout,^[4] 280I found th' infernal cunning man,And the under-witch, his Caliban,With scourges, like the furies, arm'd,That on my outward quarters storm'd.In haste I snatch'd my weapon up, 285And gave their hellish rage a stop;Call'd thrice upon your name,^[5] and fellCourageously on Sidrophel:

1. The later editions read, when thou'dst.
2. This was the famous saying of Roger Bacon's brazen head.
3. The epithets chaste and contemplative are used ironically. Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, p. 209, says, "the Turks call those that are young, and have no beards, bardasses," that is, sodomitical boys.
4. Sir Samuel Luke, it will be remembered, was scout-master. See p. 4, note ².
5. In the romances of knight-errantry the heroes always invoke their mistresses upon such occasions.