Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/105

And mighty heaps of coin increase,
Reflected from a single piece;
To draw in fools, whose nat'ral itches 335
Incline perpetually to witches,
And keep me in continual fears,
And danger of my neck and ears;
When less delinquents have been scourg'd,
And hemp on wooden anvils forg'd,^[1] 340
Which others for cravats have worn
About their necks, and took a turn.
 I pitied the sad punishment
The wretched caitiff underwent,
And held my drubbing of his bones 345
Too great an honour for poltroons;
For knights are bound to feel no blows
From paltry and unequal foes,^[2]
Who, when they slash and cut to pieces,
Do all with civillest addresses: 350
Their horses never give a blow,
But when they make a leg and bow.
I therefore spar'd his flesh, and prest him
About the witch, with many a question.
 Quoth he, For many years he drove 355
A kind of broking-trade in love,^[3]
Employ'd in all th' intrigues, and trust,
Of feeble, speculative lust;
Procurer to th' extravagancy,
And crazy ribaldry of fancy, 360
By those the devil had forsook,
As things below him, to provoke;
But b'ing a virtuoso, able
To smatter, quack, and cant, and dabble,
He held his talent most adroit, 365
For any mystical exploit,

hibitors of these curiosities were in some danger of being sentenced to Bridewell, the pillory, or the halter.

1. Alluding to the occupation of minor criminals in Bridewell, who beat the hemp with which greater criminals were hanged.
2. According to the rules of knight-errantry. See Don Quixote (book iii. ch. 1), and romances in general.
3. Meaning that he was a pimp, or pander.