334
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Before her time had turn'd destruction
T' a new and numerous production;[1]
No sooner those were overcome,
But up rose others in their room,
That, like the Christian faith, increas'd 195
The more, the more they were suppress'd:
Whom neither chains, nor transportation,
Proscription, sale, nor confiscation,
Nor all the desperate events
Of former tried experiments, 200
Nor wounds, could terrify, nor mangling,
To leave off loyalty and dangling,
Nor death, with all his bones, affright
From vent'ring to maintain the right,
From staking life and fortune down 205
'Gainst all together,[2] for the crown:
But kept the title of their cause
From forfeiture, like claims in laws;
And prov'd no prosp'rous usurpation
Can ever settle on the nation; 210
Until, in spite of force and treason,
They put their loy'lty in possession;
And, by their constancy and faith,
Destroy'd the mighty men of Grath.
Toss'd in a furious hurricane, 215
Did Oliver give up his reign,[3]
T' a new and numerous production;[1]
No sooner those were overcome,
But up rose others in their room,
That, like the Christian faith, increas'd 195
The more, the more they were suppress'd:
Whom neither chains, nor transportation,
Proscription, sale, nor confiscation,
Nor all the desperate events
Of former tried experiments, 200
Nor wounds, could terrify, nor mangling,
To leave off loyalty and dangling,
Nor death, with all his bones, affright
From vent'ring to maintain the right,
From staking life and fortune down 205
'Gainst all together,[2] for the crown:
But kept the title of their cause
From forfeiture, like claims in laws;
And prov'd no prosp'rous usurpation
Can ever settle on the nation; 210
Until, in spite of force and treason,
They put their loy'lty in possession;
And, by their constancy and faith,
Destroy'd the mighty men of Grath.
Toss'd in a furious hurricane, 215
Did Oliver give up his reign,[3]
- ↑ The succession of Loyalists was so quick, that they seemed to be perishing, and others supplying their places, before the periods usual in nature; all which is expressed by an allusion to equivocal generation.
- ↑ That is, all of them together, namely, the several factions, their adversaries, and the devil. See v. 178.
- ↑ The Monday before the death of Oliver, August 30th, 1658, was the most windy day that had happened for twenty years. Dennis Bond, a member of the Long Parliament, and one of the king's judges, died on this day; wherefore, when Oliver likewise went away in a storm the Friday following, it was said, the devil came in the first wind to fetch him, but finding him not quite ready, took Bond for his appearance. Dryden, Waller, and other poets have verses on the subject:and Godolphin:
In storms as loud as was his crying sin.
