HUDIBRAS.
425
Am fallen from the paradise
Of your good graces, and fair eyes; 10
Lost to the world and you, I'm sent
To everlasting banishment,
Where all the hopes I had t' have won
Your heart, b'ing dash'd, will break my own.
Yet if you were not so severe 15
To 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; 20
But not because it is unpaid
Tis violated, though delay'd.
Or if it were, it is no fault
So heinous, as you'd have it thought;
To undergo the loss of ears, 25
Like 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 't
Upon as diff'rent an account; 30
The one for great and weighty cause,
To salve in honour ugly flaws;
For none are like to do it sooner
Than those who 're nicest of their honour;
The other, for base gain and pay, 35
Forswear and perjure by the day,
And make th' exposing and retailing
Their souls, and consciences, a calling.
It is no scandal, nor aspersion,
Upon a great and noble person, 40
To say, he nat'rally abhorr'd
Th' 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, 45
Is found more useful to the great
Than 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
Of your good graces, and fair eyes; 10
Lost to the world and you, I'm sent
To everlasting banishment,
Where all the hopes I had t' have won
Your heart, b'ing dash'd, will break my own.
Yet if you were not so severe 15
To 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; 20
But not because it is unpaid
Tis violated, though delay'd.
Or if it were, it is no fault
So heinous, as you'd have it thought;
To undergo the loss of ears, 25
Like 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 't
Upon as diff'rent an account; 30
The one for great and weighty cause,
To salve in honour ugly flaws;
For none are like to do it sooner
Than those who 're nicest of their honour;
The other, for base gain and pay, 35
Forswear and perjure by the day,
And make th' exposing and retailing
Their souls, and consciences, a calling.
It is no scandal, nor aspersion,
Upon a great and noble person, 40
To say, he nat'rally abhorr'd
Th' 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, 45
Is found more useful to the great
Than 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
