314
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick
Tho' he gave his name to our Old Nick,[1]
But was below the least of these, 1315
That pass i' th' world for holiness.
This said, the furies and the light
In th' instant vanish'd out of sight,
And left him in the dark alone,
With stinks of brimstone and his own. 1320
The Queen of night, whose large command
Rules all the sea, and half the land,[2]
And over moist and crazy brains,
In high spring-tides, at midnight reigns,[3]
Was now declining to the west, 1325
To go to bed and take her rest;
When Hudibras, whose stubborn blows
Deny'd his bones that soft repose,
Lay still expecting worse and more,
Stretch'd out at length upon the floor; 1330
And tho' he shut his eyes as fast
As if he'd been to sleep his last,
Saw all the shapes that fear or wizards,
Do make the devil wear for vizards;
And pricking up his ears, to hark 1335
If he could hear, too, in the dark,
Was first invaded with a groan,
And after, in a feeble tone,
These trembling words: Unhappy wretch,
What hast thou gotten by this fetch, 1340
Tho' he gave his name to our Old Nick,[1]
But was below the least of these, 1315
That pass i' th' world for holiness.
This said, the furies and the light
In th' instant vanish'd out of sight,
And left him in the dark alone,
With stinks of brimstone and his own. 1320
The Queen of night, whose large command
Rules all the sea, and half the land,[2]
And over moist and crazy brains,
In high spring-tides, at midnight reigns,[3]
Was now declining to the west, 1325
To go to bed and take her rest;
When Hudibras, whose stubborn blows
Deny'd his bones that soft repose,
Lay still expecting worse and more,
Stretch'd out at length upon the floor; 1330
And tho' he shut his eyes as fast
As if he'd been to sleep his last,
Saw all the shapes that fear or wizards,
Do make the devil wear for vizards;
And pricking up his ears, to hark 1335
If he could hear, too, in the dark,
Was first invaded with a groan,
And after, in a feeble tone,
These trembling words: Unhappy wretch,
What hast thou gotten by this fetch, 1340
- ↑ Nicholas Machiavelli was the great Florentine Historian and Statesman of the 16th cent. His political principles were loudly condemned by the Puritans, because they considered them identified with those of Charles I. Nick is a name of the devil, taken from the old Scandinavian and Teutonic name of a kind of water-spirit. See Keightley's Fairy Mythology. When Machiavel is represented as such a proficient in wickedness, that his name hath become an appellation for the devil himself, we are not less entertained by the smartness of the sentiment, than we should be if it were supported by the truth of history. By the same kind of poetical license Empedodes, in the second canto, is humorously said to have been acquainted with the writings of Alexander Ross, who did not live till about 2000 years after him.
- ↑ The moon is here said to influence the tides and motions of the sea, and half mankind, who are assumed to be more or less lunatic.
- ↑ Insane persons are supposed to be worst at the change and full of the moon, when the tides are highest.
