CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
367
Disdain to own the least regret
For all the Christian blood we 've let;
'Twill save our credit, and maintain 985
Our title to do so again;
That needs not cost one dram of sense,
But pertinacious impudence.
Our constancy t' our principles,
In time will wear out all things else; 990
Like marble statues, rubb'd in pieces
With gallantry of pilgrims' kisses;[1]
While those who turn and wind their oaths,
Have swell'd and sunk, like other froths;
Prevail'd a while, but 'twas not long[2] 995
Before from world to world they swung;
As they had turn'd from side to side,
And as the changelings liv'd, they dy'd.
This said, th' impatient statesmonger
Could now contain himself no longer,[3] 1000
Who had not spar'd to show his piques
Against th' haranguer's politics,
With smart remarks of leering faces
And annotations of grimaces.
After he'd minister'd a dose 1005
Of snuff mundungus to his nose,[4]
And powder'd th' inside of his skull,
Instead of th' outward jobbernol,[5]
For all the Christian blood we 've let;
'Twill save our credit, and maintain 985
Our title to do so again;
That needs not cost one dram of sense,
But pertinacious impudence.
Our constancy t' our principles,
In time will wear out all things else; 990
Like marble statues, rubb'd in pieces
With gallantry of pilgrims' kisses;[1]
While those who turn and wind their oaths,
Have swell'd and sunk, like other froths;
Prevail'd a while, but 'twas not long[2] 995
Before from world to world they swung;
As they had turn'd from side to side,
And as the changelings liv'd, they dy'd.
This said, th' impatient statesmonger
Could now contain himself no longer,[3] 1000
Who had not spar'd to show his piques
Against th' haranguer's politics,
With smart remarks of leering faces
And annotations of grimaces.
After he'd minister'd a dose 1005
Of snuff mundungus to his nose,[4]
And powder'd th' inside of his skull,
Instead of th' outward jobbernol,[5]
- ↑ Round the Casa Santa of Loretto, the marble is worn into a deep channel, by the knees and kisses of devout pilgrims. Many statues of saints are in like manner worn by the adoration of their votaries.
- ↑ Grey illustrates what he calls the beastly habit of snuff-taking by a story from Chardin's Travels, quoted by Montaigne, Essay 22, which is: that at Bootan, in the East Indies, the prince is held in such esteem and reverence, that the courtiers collect his ordure in a linen cloth, and after drying and preparing it, not only use it as snuff, but strew it over their meals as a great delicacy.
- ↑ As the former orator had harangued on the side of the Presbyterians, his antagonist, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, now smartly inveighs against them, and justifies the principles and conduct of the Independents.
- ↑ The early editions read "soul."
- ↑ That is, thick-head, or blockhead. See Wright's Glossary
Butler may mean that some of the tub-holders-forth kept houses of ill fame, from whence the transit to the powdering-tub was frequent. See also Measure for Measure, Act iii. sc. 2.
