CANTO III.]
HUDIBRAS.
405
Print new additions to their feats,
And emendations in gazettes;[1]
And when, for furious haste to run, 275
They durst not stay to fire a gun,
Have done 't with bonfires, and at home
Made squibs and crackers overcome;
To set the rabble on a flame,
And keep their governors from blame, 280
Disperse the news the pulpit tells,[2]
Confirm'd with fireworks and with bells:
And tho' reduc'd to that extreme.
They have been forc'd to sing Te Deum;[3]
Yet, with religious blasphemy, 285
By flatt'ring heaven with a lie;
And, for their beating, giving thanks,
They 've raised recruits, and fill'd their banks;[4]
And emendations in gazettes;[1]
And when, for furious haste to run, 275
They durst not stay to fire a gun,
Have done 't with bonfires, and at home
Made squibs and crackers overcome;
To set the rabble on a flame,
And keep their governors from blame, 280
Disperse the news the pulpit tells,[2]
Confirm'd with fireworks and with bells:
And tho' reduc'd to that extreme.
They have been forc'd to sing Te Deum;[3]
Yet, with religious blasphemy, 285
By flatt'ring heaven with a lie;
And, for their beating, giving thanks,
They 've raised recruits, and fill'd their banks;[4]
- ↑ The gazettes did not come into vogue until Charles the Second's time. The newspapers during the civil war and the commonwealth were called Mercuries and Diurnals.
- ↑ "In their sermons," says Burnet, "and chiefly in their prayers, all that passed in the state was canvassed. Men were as good as named, and either recommended or complained of to God, as they were odious or acceptable to them. At length this humour grew so petulant, that the pulpit was a scene of news and passion."
- ↑ This was the customary psalm of victory, but the Puritans did not approve of it, as being of papistical origin.
- ↑ It has been an ancient and very frequent practice for the vanquished party in war to boast of victory, and even to ordain solemn thanksgivings, as means of keeping up the spirits of the people. The Parliament were said often to have had recourse to this artifice, and in the course of the war had thirty-five thanksgiving days. In the first notable encounter, at Wickfield near Worcester, September 23, 1042, their forces received a total defeat. Whitelock says, they were all killed or routed, and only one man lost on the king's side. Yet the Parliamentarians spread about printed papers, bragging of it as a complete victory, and ordained a special thanksgiving in London. This they did after the battle of Keynton, and the second fight at Newbury; but particularly after Sir William Waller received that great defeat at Roundway-down, when they kept a thanksgiving at Gloucester, and made rejoicings for a signal victory, which they pretended he had gained for them. This was no new practice. See Polyæni Stratagem, lib. i. cap. 35 and 44.—Stratocles persuaded the Athenians to offer a sacrifice to the gods, by way of thanks, on account of their having defeated their enemies, although he knew that the Athenian fleet had been defeated. When the truth was known, and the people became exasperated, his reply was, "What injury have I done you? it is owing to me that you have spent three days in joy."—Catherine de Medicis used to say, that a false report, if believed for
