368
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
He shook it with a scornful look,
On th' adversary, and thus he spoke: 1010
In dressing a calf's head, altho'
The tongue and brains together go,
Both keep so great a distance here,
'Tis strange if ever they come near;
For who did ever play his gambols 1015
With such insufferable rambles,
To make the bringing in the king,
And keeping of him out, one thing?
Which none could do, but those that swore
T' as point-blank nonsense heretofore; 1020
That to defend was to invade,
And to assassinate to aid:[1]
Unless, because you drove him out,
And that was never made a doubt;
No pow'r is able to restore 1025
And bring him in, but on your score:
A sp'ritual doctrine, that conduces
Most properly to all your uses.
'Tis true, a scorpion's oil is said
To cure the wounds the vermin made;[2] 1030
And weapons, dress'd with salves, restore
And heal the hurts they gave before:
But whether Presbyterians have
So much good nature as the salve,
Or virtue in them as the vermin, 1035
Those who have tried them can determine.
Indeed 'tis pity you should miss
Th' arrears of all your services,[3]
On th' adversary, and thus he spoke: 1010
In dressing a calf's head, altho'
The tongue and brains together go,
Both keep so great a distance here,
'Tis strange if ever they come near;
For who did ever play his gambols 1015
With such insufferable rambles,
To make the bringing in the king,
And keeping of him out, one thing?
Which none could do, but those that swore
T' as point-blank nonsense heretofore; 1020
That to defend was to invade,
And to assassinate to aid:[1]
Unless, because you drove him out,
And that was never made a doubt;
No pow'r is able to restore 1025
And bring him in, but on your score:
A sp'ritual doctrine, that conduces
Most properly to all your uses.
'Tis true, a scorpion's oil is said
To cure the wounds the vermin made;[2] 1030
And weapons, dress'd with salves, restore
And heal the hurts they gave before:
But whether Presbyterians have
So much good nature as the salve,
Or virtue in them as the vermin, 1035
Those who have tried them can determine.
Indeed 'tis pity you should miss
Th' arrears of all your services,[3]
- ↑ This alludes to Rolf, a shoemaker, who was indicted for entertaining a design to kill the king when imprisoned in the Isle of Wight, in evidence of which Osborne and Doucet swore positively. Serjeant Wild, who was sent to Winchester to try the case, and is said to have been bribed to get Rolf off, gave an unfair charge to the jury, by saying: "There was a time indeed when intentions and words were made treason; but God forbid it should be so now: how did anybody know but that those two men, Osborne and Doucet (the evidence), would have made away with the king, and that Rolf charged his pistol to preserve him." Clarendon, vol. iii. p. 180.
- ↑ This is Pliny's statement, Natural History, xxix. 29. Similar stories are extant respecting the fat of the viper.
- ↑ A sneer at Sir Kenelm Digby's doctrine of sympathy.
