CANTO III.]
HUDIBRAS.
415
Which he may 'dhere to, yet disown,For reasons to himself best known; 550But 'tis not to b' avoided now,For Sidrophel resolves to sue;Whom I must answer, or begin,Inevitably, first with him;For I've receiv'd advertisement, 555By times enough, of his intent;And knowing he that first complainsTh' advantage of the bus'ness gains;For courts of justice understandThe plaintiff to be eldest hand; 560Who what he pleases may aver,The other, nothing till he swear;[1]Is freely admitted to all grace,And lawful favour, by his place;And, for his bringing custom in, 565Has all advantages to win:I, who resolve to overseeNo lucky opportunity,Will go to counsel, to adviseWhich way t' encounter, or surprise, 570And after long consideration,Have found out one to fit th' occasion,Most apt for what I have to do,As counsellor, and justice too.[2]And truly so, no doubt, he was, 575A lawyer fit for such a case. An old dull sot, who told the clock,[3]For many years at Bridewell-dock, At Westminster, and Hicks's-hall, And hiccius doctius[4] play'd in all; 580
- ↑ An answer to a bill in chancery is always upon oath;—a petition not so.
- ↑ Probably the poet had his eye on some particular person here. The old annotator says it was Edmund Prideaux; but the respectable and wealthy Attorney-General of that name cannot have been meant. The portrait must have been taken from some one of a much lower class. A pettifogging lawyer named Siderfin is said with more probability to have been intended.
- ↑ The puisné judge was formerly called the Tell-clock; as supposed to be not much employed, but listening how the time went.
- ↑ Cant words used by jugglers, corrupted perhaps from hic est inter doctos. See note on hocus pocus, at line 716.
