332
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
For now there was no foe in arms
T' unite their factions with alarms, 130
But all reduc'd and overcome,
Except their worst, themselves at home,
Who'd compass'd all they pray'd, and swore,
And fought, and preach'd, and plunder'd for,
Subdu'd the nation, church and state, 135
And all things but their laws and hate;[1]
But when they came to treat and transact,
And share the spoil of all they'd ransackt,
To botch up what they'd torn and rent,
Religion and the government, 140
They met no sooner, but prepar'd
To pull down all the war had spar'd;
Agreed in nothing, but t' abolish,
Subvert, extirpate, and demolish:
For knaves and fools b'ing near of kin, 145
As Dutch boors are t' a sooterkin,[2]
Both parties join'd to do their best
To damn the public interest;
And herded only in consults,[3]
To put by one another's bolts; 150
T' outcant the Babylonian labourers,
At all their dialects of jabberers,
And tug at both ends of the saw,
To tear down government and law.
For as two cheats, that play one game, 155
Are both defeated of their aim;[4]
So those who play a game of state,
And only cavil in debate,
T' unite their factions with alarms, 130
But all reduc'd and overcome,
Except their worst, themselves at home,
Who'd compass'd all they pray'd, and swore,
And fought, and preach'd, and plunder'd for,
Subdu'd the nation, church and state, 135
And all things but their laws and hate;[1]
But when they came to treat and transact,
And share the spoil of all they'd ransackt,
To botch up what they'd torn and rent,
Religion and the government, 140
They met no sooner, but prepar'd
To pull down all the war had spar'd;
Agreed in nothing, but t' abolish,
Subvert, extirpate, and demolish:
For knaves and fools b'ing near of kin, 145
As Dutch boors are t' a sooterkin,[2]
Both parties join'd to do their best
To damn the public interest;
And herded only in consults,[3]
To put by one another's bolts; 150
T' outcant the Babylonian labourers,
At all their dialects of jabberers,
And tug at both ends of the saw,
To tear down government and law.
For as two cheats, that play one game, 155
Are both defeated of their aim;[4]
So those who play a game of state,
And only cavil in debate,
- ↑ That is, the laws of the land, and hatred of the people.
- ↑ A reflection upon the Dutch women, for their use of portable stoves, which they carry by a string, and on seating themselves generally put it under their petticoats; whence they are humorously said to engender sooterkins with their children. Howel, in his letters, describes them as "likest a bat of any creature," and Cleveland says, "not unlike a rat."
- ↑ That is, both parties were intimately united together.
- ↑ For as when two cheats, equally masters of the very same tricks, are by that circumstance mutually defeated of their aim, namely, to impose upon each other, so those well matched tricksters, who play with state affairs, and only cavil at one another's schemes, ever counteract each other.
