CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
319
Sir, quoth the Voice, 'tis true, I grant,[1]
We made, and took the Covenant: 1450
But that no more concerns the Cause,
Than other perj'ries do the laws,
Which, when they're prov'd in open court,
Wear wooden peccadillos for't:[2]
And that's the reason Cov'nanters 1455
Hold[3] up their hands, like rogues at bars.
I see, quoth Hudibras, from whence
These scandals of the saints commence,[4]
That are but natural effects
Of Satan's malice, and his sects, 1460
Those spider-saints, that hang by threads
Spun out o' th' entrails of their heads.
Sir, quoth the Voice, that may as true[5]
And properly be said of you,
Whose talents may compare with either,[6] 1465
Or both the other put together:
For all the Independents do,
Is only what you forc'd 'em to;
You, who are not content alone
With tricks to put the devil down. 1470
But must have armies rais'd to back
The Gospel-work you undertake;
As if artillery and edge-tools,
Were th' only engines to save souls:
We made, and took the Covenant: 1450
But that no more concerns the Cause,
Than other perj'ries do the laws,
Which, when they're prov'd in open court,
Wear wooden peccadillos for't:[2]
And that's the reason Cov'nanters 1455
Hold[3] up their hands, like rogues at bars.
I see, quoth Hudibras, from whence
These scandals of the saints commence,[4]
That are but natural effects
Of Satan's malice, and his sects, 1460
Those spider-saints, that hang by threads
Spun out o' th' entrails of their heads.
Sir, quoth the Voice, that may as true[5]
And properly be said of you,
Whose talents may compare with either,[6] 1465
Or both the other put together:
For all the Independents do,
Is only what you forc'd 'em to;
You, who are not content alone
With tricks to put the devil down. 1470
But must have armies rais'd to back
The Gospel-work you undertake;
As if artillery and edge-tools,
Were th' only engines to save souls:
- ↑ Ralpho, the supposed sprite, allows that they, the devil and the Independents, had engaged in the Covenant; but he insists that the violation of it was not at all prejudicial to the cause they had undertaken and for which it was framed.
- ↑ A peccadillo, or more correctly Piccadil, was a stiff collar or ruff worn round the neck and shoulders. Ludicrously it means the pillory. This collar came into fashion in the reign of James I., and is supposed to have given the name to Piccadilly.
- ↑ Some editions read "held up."
- ↑ That is, the scandalous reflections on the saints, such as charging the Covenant with perjury, and making the Covenanter no better than a rogue at the bar.
- ↑ Hudibras having been hard upon Satan and the Independents, the voice undertakes the defence of each, but first of the Independents.
- ↑ That is, either with the Independents or with the devil.
framed by the Scots, and adopted by the English, ordered to be read in all churches, when every person was bound to give his consent, by holding up his hand at the reading of it.
