HUDIBRAS.
425
Am fallen from the paradiseOf your good graces, and fair eyes; 10Lost to the world and you, I'm sentTo everlasting banishment,Where all the hopes I had t' have wonYour heart, b'ing dash'd, will break my own.Yet if you were not so severe 15To pass your doom before you hear,You'd find, upon my just defence,How much you 've wrong'd my innocence.That once I made a vow to you,Which yet is unperform'd, 'tis true; 20But not because it is unpaidTis violated, though delay'd.Or if it were, it is no faultSo heinous, as you'd have it thought;To undergo the loss of ears, 25Like vulgar hackney perjurers;Por there's a difference in the case,Between the noble and the base:Who always are observ'd to 've done 'tUpon as diff'rent an account; 30The one for great and weighty cause,To salve in honour ugly flaws;For none are like to do it soonerThan those who 're nicest of their honour;The other, for base gain and pay, 35Forswear and perjure by the day,And make th' exposing and retailingTheir souls, and consciences, a calling.It is no scandal, nor aspersion,Upon a great and noble person, 40To say, he nat'rally abhorr'dTh' old-fashion'd trick, to keep his word,Tho' 'tis perfidiousness and shame,In meaner men to do the same:For to be able to forget, 45Is found more useful to the greatThan gout, or deafness, or bad eyes,To make 'em pass for wondrous wise.But tho' the law, on perjurers,Inflicts the forfeiture of ears, 50
