322
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
'Tis true, quoth he, that intercourse
Has pass'd between your friends and ours, 1530
That, as you trust us, in our way,
To raise your members, and to lay,[1]
We send you others of our own,
Denounc'd to hang themselves, or drown,[2]
Or, frighted with our oratory, 1535
To leap down headlong many a story;
Have us'd all means to propagate
Your mighty interests of state,
Laid out our sp'ritual gifts to further
Your great designs of rage and murther: 1540
For if the saints are nam'd from blood,
We onl' have made that title good;[3]
And, if it were but in our power,
We should not scruple to do more,
And not be half a soul behind 1545
Of all dissenters of mankind.
Right, quoth the Voice, and, as I scorn
To be ungrateful, in return
Of all those kind good offices,
I'll free you out of this distress, 1550
And set you down in safety, where
It is no time to tell you here.
The cock crows,[4] and the morn draws on,
When 'tis decreed I must be gone;
And if I leave you here till day, 1555
You'll find it hard to get away.
With that the Spirit grop'd about
To find th' enchanted hero out,
Has pass'd between your friends and ours, 1530
That, as you trust us, in our way,
To raise your members, and to lay,[1]
We send you others of our own,
Denounc'd to hang themselves, or drown,[2]
Or, frighted with our oratory, 1535
To leap down headlong many a story;
Have us'd all means to propagate
Your mighty interests of state,
Laid out our sp'ritual gifts to further
Your great designs of rage and murther: 1540
For if the saints are nam'd from blood,
We onl' have made that title good;[3]
And, if it were but in our power,
We should not scruple to do more,
And not be half a soul behind 1545
Of all dissenters of mankind.
Right, quoth the Voice, and, as I scorn
To be ungrateful, in return
Of all those kind good offices,
I'll free you out of this distress, 1550
And set you down in safety, where
It is no time to tell you here.
The cock crows,[4] and the morn draws on,
When 'tis decreed I must be gone;
And if I leave you here till day, 1555
You'll find it hard to get away.
With that the Spirit grop'd about
To find th' enchanted hero out,
- ↑ Your friends and ours, that is, you devils and us fanatics: that as you trust us in our way, to raise you devils, and to lay them again when done with. Nash.
- ↑ It is probable that the presbyterian doctrine of reprobation had driven some persons to suicide, as in the case of Alderman Hoyle, a member of the house. See Birkenhead's Paul's Church Yard.
- ↑ Assuming that sanctus is derived from sanguis, blood.—We fanatics of this island only have merited that title by spilling much blood.
- ↑ It was formerly a current superstition that when the cock crowed at break of day, spirits and fiends that walked by night were forced to return to their infernal prison.
