422
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Till, with her worldly goods and body,
Spite of her heart she has indow'd ye:
Retain all sorts of witnesses,
That ply i' th' Temple, under trees; 760
Or walk the round, with knights o' th' posts,[1]
About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts;[2]
Or wait for customers between
The pillar-rows in Lincoln's-Inn;[3]
Where vouchers, forgers, common-bail, 765
And affidavit-men ne'er fail
T' expose to sale all sorts of oaths,
According to their ears and clothes,[4]
Their only necessary tools,
Besides the Gospel, and their souls;[5] 770
And when ye 're furnish'd with all purveys,
I shall be ready at your service.
I would not give, quoth Hudibras,
A straw to understand a case,
Without the admirabler skill 775
To wind and manage it at will;
To veer, and tack, and stear a cause,
Against the weather-gage of laws;
And ring the changes upon cases,
As plain as noses upon faces; 780
Spite of her heart she has indow'd ye:
Retain all sorts of witnesses,
That ply i' th' Temple, under trees; 760
Or walk the round, with knights o' th' posts,[1]
About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts;[2]
Or wait for customers between
The pillar-rows in Lincoln's-Inn;[3]
Where vouchers, forgers, common-bail, 765
And affidavit-men ne'er fail
T' expose to sale all sorts of oaths,
According to their ears and clothes,[4]
Their only necessary tools,
Besides the Gospel, and their souls;[5] 770
And when ye 're furnish'd with all purveys,
I shall be ready at your service.
I would not give, quoth Hudibras,
A straw to understand a case,
Without the admirabler skill 775
To wind and manage it at will;
To veer, and tack, and stear a cause,
Against the weather-gage of laws;
And ring the changes upon cases,
As plain as noses upon faces; 780
- ↑ Witnesses who are ready to swear anything, true or false. See note at page 28.
- ↑ These witnesses frequently plied for custom about the Temple-church, where are several monumental effigies of knights templars, who, according to custom, are represented cross-legged. Their hosts means that nobody gave them any better entertainment than these knights, and therefore that they were almost starved.
- ↑ The crypt beneath the chapel of Lincoln's Inn, was another place where these knights of the post plied for custom.
- ↑ Lord Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion, vol. ii. p. 355, tells us that an Irishman of low condition and meanly clothed, being brought as evidence against Lord Strafford, lieutenant of Ireland, Mr Pym gave him money to buy a satin suit and cloak, in which equipage he appeared at the trial. The like was practised in the trial of Lord Stafford for the popish plot. See Carte's History of the Life of James Duke of Ormonde, vol. ii. p. 517.
- ↑ When a witness swears he holds the Gospel in his right hand, and kisses it: the Gospel therefore is called his tool, by which he damns his other tool, namely, his soul.
