304
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
That th' infant's fortunes may partake
Of love too,[1] for the mother's sake.
For these you play at purposes, 1005
And love your loves with A's and B's;[2]
For these, at Beast and l'Ombre woo,[3]
And play for love and money too;[4]
Strive who shall be the ablest man
At right gallanting of a fan; 1010
And who the most genteelly bred
At sucking of a vizard-bead;[5]
How best t' accost us in all quarters,
T' our Question and Command new garters;[6]
And solidly discourse upon 1015
All sorts of dresses pro and con:
For there's no mystery nor trade,
But in the art of love is made.[7]
Of love too,[1] for the mother's sake.
For these you play at purposes, 1005
And love your loves with A's and B's;[2]
For these, at Beast and l'Ombre woo,[3]
And play for love and money too;[4]
Strive who shall be the ablest man
At right gallanting of a fan; 1010
And who the most genteelly bred
At sucking of a vizard-bead;[5]
How best t' accost us in all quarters,
T' our Question and Command new garters;[6]
And solidly discourse upon 1015
All sorts of dresses pro and con:
For there's no mystery nor trade,
But in the art of love is made.[7]
- ↑ That is, the widow's children by a former husband, who are under age; to whom the lover would willingly be guardian, to have the management of the jointure.
- ↑ This is still imposed at forfeits. But see Pepys's Diary.
- ↑ Fashionable games much in vogue in the time of Charles II. Ombre was introduced at the Restoration. Beast, or Angel-beast, was similar to Loo. "I love my love with an A," was one of the favourite amusements at Whitehall. Pepys tells us that he once found the Duke and Duchess of York, with all the great ladies at Whitehall, "sitting upon a carpet upon the ground, there being no chairs, playing at 'I love my love with an A, because he is so and so; and I hate him with an A, because of this and that;' and some of them, particularly the Duchess herself, and my Lady Castlemaine, were very witty."
- ↑ The widow, in these and the following lines, gives no bad sketch of a person who endeavours to retrieve his circumstances by marriage, and practises every method in his power to recommend himself to his rich mistress: he plays with her at Questions and Commands, endeavours to divert her with cards, puts himself in masquerade, flirts her fan, talks of flames and darts, aches and sufferings; which last, the poet intimates, might more justly be attributed to other causes.
- ↑ Masks were kept close to the face, by a bead fixed to the inside of them, and held in the mouth, when the lady's hands were otherwise employed.
- ↑ At the vulgar play of Questions and Commands, a forfeit was often to take off a lady's garter: expecting this therefore the lady provided herself with new ones.
- ↑ That is, made use of, or practised.
