CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
289
Or ever shall, perhaps, by th' one
Who's bound to vouch 'em for his own,
Tho' got b' implicit generation,[1] 595
And general club of all the nation;
For which she's fortified no less
Than all the island with four seas:[2]
Exacts the tribute of her dower,
In ready insolence and power, 600
And makes him pass away, to have
And hold to her, himself, her slave,
More wretched than an ancient villain,[3]
Condemn'd to drudgery and tilling;
While all he does upon the by, 605
She is not bound to justify,
Nor at her proper cost and charge
Maintain the feats he does at large.[4]
Such hideous sots were those obedient
Old vassals to their ladies regent, 610
To give the cheats the eldest hand
In foul play, by the laws o' th' land,
For which so many a legal cuckold[5]
Has been run down in courts, and truckled:
A law that most unjustly yokes 615
All Johns of Stiles to Joans of Nokes,[6]
Who's bound to vouch 'em for his own,
Tho' got b' implicit generation,[1] 595
And general club of all the nation;
For which she's fortified no less
Than all the island with four seas:[2]
Exacts the tribute of her dower,
In ready insolence and power, 600
And makes him pass away, to have
And hold to her, himself, her slave,
More wretched than an ancient villain,[3]
Condemn'd to drudgery and tilling;
While all he does upon the by, 605
She is not bound to justify,
Nor at her proper cost and charge
Maintain the feats he does at large.[4]
Such hideous sots were those obedient
Old vassals to their ladies regent, 610
To give the cheats the eldest hand
In foul play, by the laws o' th' land,
For which so many a legal cuckold[5]
Has been run down in courts, and truckled:
A law that most unjustly yokes 615
All Johns of Stiles to Joans of Nokes,[6]
- ↑ This would seem to mean generation on faith; but Dr Johnson says, implicit signifies mixt, complicated, intricate, perplexed. Grey illustrates the reference by the story of a woman who alleged that she was enceinte by her husband, though he had been three years absent from her, upon the plea that she had received very comfortable letters from him.
- ↑ The interpretation of the law was, that a child could not be deemed a bastard, if the husband had remained in the island, or within the four seas. See Butler's Remains, vol. i. p. 122.
- ↑ The villains were a sort of serfs or slaves, bound to the land, and passed with it to any purchaser: as the lord was not answerable for anything done by his villain tenant, no more is the wife for anything done by her villain husband, though he is bound to justify and maintain all that his wife does.
- ↑ Meaning that the husband is bound under all circumstances to maintain the credit of his wife, a condition as degrading as that of villainage, by which the tenants were bound to render the most abject services to their lords; while the wife, on the other hand, is in no respect responsible for her husband.
- ↑ A legal cuckold is one who has proved his title by an action for damages.
- ↑ These are names given in law proceedings to indefinite persons, like
