CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
389
For, as the Egyptians us'd by bees
T'express their antique Ptolemies,
And by their stings, the swords they wore,[1]
Held forth authority and pow'r; 1590
Because these subtle animals
Bear all their int'rests in their tails;
And when they're once impair'd in that,
Are banish'd their well-order'd state:
They thought all governments were best 1595
By hieroglyphic Rumps exprest.
For as in bodies natural,
The Rump's the fundament of all;
So, in a commonwealth or realm,
The government is called the helm; 1600
With which, like vessels under sail,
They're turn'd and winded by the tail.
The tail, which birds and fishes steer
Their courses with, thro' sea and air;
To whom the rudder of the rump is 1605
The same thing with the stern and compass,
This shows, how perfectly the rump
And commonwealth in nature jump.
For as a fly that goes to bed,
Rests with his tail above his head,[2] 1610
So, in this mongrel state of ours,
The rabble are the supreme powers,
That hors'd us on their backs, to show us
A jadish trick at last, and throw us.
The learned Rabbins of the Jews 1615
Write, there's a bone, which they call luez,[3]
T'express their antique Ptolemies,
And by their stings, the swords they wore,[1]
Held forth authority and pow'r; 1590
Because these subtle animals
Bear all their int'rests in their tails;
And when they're once impair'd in that,
Are banish'd their well-order'd state:
They thought all governments were best 1595
By hieroglyphic Rumps exprest.
For as in bodies natural,
The Rump's the fundament of all;
So, in a commonwealth or realm,
The government is called the helm; 1600
With which, like vessels under sail,
They're turn'd and winded by the tail.
The tail, which birds and fishes steer
Their courses with, thro' sea and air;
To whom the rudder of the rump is 1605
The same thing with the stern and compass,
This shows, how perfectly the rump
And commonwealth in nature jump.
For as a fly that goes to bed,
Rests with his tail above his head,[2] 1610
So, in this mongrel state of ours,
The rabble are the supreme powers,
That hors'd us on their backs, to show us
A jadish trick at last, and throw us.
The learned Rabbins of the Jews 1615
Write, there's a bone, which they call luez,[3]
- ↑ The Egyptians anciently represented their kings under the emblem of a bee, which has the power of dispensing benefits and inflicting punishments by its honey and its sting; though the poet dwells most on the energy which it bears in its tail: so the citizens of London significantly represented this fag-end of a Parliament by the rumps, or tail-parts, of sheep and other animals. Some late editions read, ancient Ptolemies. See Butler's Remains, "A speech in the Rota."
- ↑ Alluding to the position flies take up, on walls.
- ↑ Eben Ezra, and Manasseh Ben Israel, taught that there is a bone in the rump of a man (that is, in the lower end of the back-bone) of the size
Egypt; one of them is called Œdipus Egyptiacus, for which he says he studied the Egyptian mysteries twenty years. The Copts were the primitive Christians of Egypt.
