396
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
And when they neither see nor hear,
Have more than both supplied by fear,
That makes them in the dark see visions,
And hag themselves with apparitions; 20
And when their eyes discover least,
Discern the subtlest object best;
Do things not contrary alone
To th' course of nature, but its own;
The courage of the bravest daunt, 25
And turn poltroons as valiant:
For men as resolute appear
With too much, as too little fear;
And, when they're out of hopes of flying,
Will run away from death, by dying; 30
Or turn again to stand it out,
And those they fled, like lions, rout.
This Hudibras had prov'd too true,
Who, by the furies, left perdue,
And haunted with detachments, sent 35
From Marshal Legion's regiment,[1]
Was by a fiend, as counterfeit,
Reliev'd and rescu'd with a cheat,
When nothing but himself, and fear,
Was both the imps and conjurer;[2] 40
As by the rules o' th' virtuosi,
It follows in due form of poesie.
Disguis'd in all the masks of night,
We left our champion on his flight,
Have more than both supplied by fear,
That makes them in the dark see visions,
And hag themselves with apparitions; 20
And when their eyes discover least,
Discern the subtlest object best;
Do things not contrary alone
To th' course of nature, but its own;
The courage of the bravest daunt, 25
And turn poltroons as valiant:
For men as resolute appear
With too much, as too little fear;
And, when they're out of hopes of flying,
Will run away from death, by dying; 30
Or turn again to stand it out,
And those they fled, like lions, rout.
This Hudibras had prov'd too true,
Who, by the furies, left perdue,
And haunted with detachments, sent 35
From Marshal Legion's regiment,[1]
Was by a fiend, as counterfeit,
Reliev'd and rescu'd with a cheat,
When nothing but himself, and fear,
Was both the imps and conjurer;[2] 40
As by the rules o' th' virtuosi,
It follows in due form of poesie.
Disguis'd in all the masks of night,
We left our champion on his flight,
- ↑ Grey supposes that Stephen Marshal, a famous Presbyterian preacher, who dealt largely in hell and damnation, and was called the Geneva Bull, is here intended. But Nash thinks that the word marshal is a title of office and rank, not the name of any particular man, and that legion is used for the name of a leader, or captain of a company of devils. The meaning is, that the Knight was haunted by a crew of devils, such as that in the Gospel, which obtained the name of Legion, because they were many.
- ↑ The poet, with great wit, rallies the imaginary and groundless fears which possess some persons: and from whence proceed the tales of ghosts and apparitions, imps, conjurers, and witches.
which those that were near him might hear with their noses." See Remains, vol. ii. p. 245. Nash thinks that Butler probably meant to ridicule Sir Kenelm Digby, who in his "Treatise on the Nature of Bodies," tells the story of a Spanish nobleman "who could hear by his eyes and see words."
