292
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
And ere they venture o'er a stream,
Know how to size themselves and them.
Whence wittiest ladies always choose 675
To undertake the heaviest goose:
For now the world is grown so wary,
That few of either sex dare marry,
But rather trust, on tick, t' amours,
The cross and pile, for better or worse;[1] 680
A mode that is held honourable,
As well as French, and fashionable:
For when it falls out for the best,
Where both are incommoded least,
In soul and body two unite, 685
To make up one hermaphrodite,
Still amorous, and fond, and billing,
Like Philip and Mary on a shilling,[2]
They 've more punctilios and capriches
Between the petticoat and breeches, 690
More petulant extravagances,
Than poets make 'em in romances;
Tho', when their heroes 'spouse the dames,
We hear no more of charms and flames;
For then their late attracts decline, 695
And turn as eager as prick'd wine;
And all their catterwauling tricks,
In earnest to as jealous piques;
Which th' ancients wisely signify'd
By th' yellow mantos of the bride.[3] 700
For jealousy is but a kind
Of clap and grincam of the mind,[4]
Know how to size themselves and them.
Whence wittiest ladies always choose 675
To undertake the heaviest goose:
For now the world is grown so wary,
That few of either sex dare marry,
But rather trust, on tick, t' amours,
The cross and pile, for better or worse;[1] 680
A mode that is held honourable,
As well as French, and fashionable:
For when it falls out for the best,
Where both are incommoded least,
In soul and body two unite, 685
To make up one hermaphrodite,
Still amorous, and fond, and billing,
Like Philip and Mary on a shilling,[2]
They 've more punctilios and capriches
Between the petticoat and breeches, 690
More petulant extravagances,
Than poets make 'em in romances;
Tho', when their heroes 'spouse the dames,
We hear no more of charms and flames;
For then their late attracts decline, 695
And turn as eager as prick'd wine;
And all their catterwauling tricks,
In earnest to as jealous piques;
Which th' ancients wisely signify'd
By th' yellow mantos of the bride.[3] 700
For jealousy is but a kind
Of clap and grincam of the mind,[4]
- ↑ Signifying a mere toss up, heads or tails.
- ↑ On the shillings of Philip and Mary, coined 1555, the faces are placed opposite, and near to each other. Cleveland, in his poem on an Hermaphrodite, has a similar expression:"Thus did nature's mintage vary,
Coining thee a Philip and Mary." - ↑ The bride, among the Romans, was brought home to her husband in a yellow veil. The widow intimates that the yellow colour of the veil was an emblem of jealousy.
- ↑ The later editions read crincam; either of them is a cant word, denoting an infectious disease, or whimsical affection of the mind, applied commonly
