Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/292

Prepost'rously t' entice and gain
Those to adore 'em they disdain; 190
And only draw 'em in to clog,
With idle names, a catalogue.^[1]
A lover is, the more he's brave,
T' his mistress but the more a slave;^[2]
And whatsoever she commands, 195
Becomes a favour from lier hands,
Which he's oblig'd t' obey, and must,
Whether it be unjust or just.
Then when he is compell'd by her
T' adventures he would else forbear, 200
Who, with his honour, can withstand,
Since force is greater than command?
And when necessity's obey'd,
Nothing can be unjust or bad:
And therefore, when the mighty pow'rs 205
Of love, our great ally, and yours,
Join'd forces not to be withstood
By frail enamour'd flesh and blood,

and was sent to Scotland to forward the Covenant. He then became a strenuous preacher on the side of the Independents: "was put into Dr Featly's living at Acton, and rode there every Lord's day in triumph in a coach drawn by four horses." He attacked Lilly the astrologer from the pulpit with considerable virulence, and for this service was rewarded with the office of holding forth upon thanksgiving days. Wherefore

He thought upon it, and resolv'd to put
His beard into as wonderful a cut.
Butler's MS. 


This preacher's beard is honoured with an entire poem in Butler's Genuine Remains, vol. i. p. 177. Indeed beards at that period were the prominent part of fashionable costume: when the head of a celebrated court chaplain and preacher had been dressed in a superior style, the friscur exclaimed, with a mixture of admiration and self-applause, "I'll be hang'd if any person of taste can attend to one word of the sermon to-day."
1. To increase the catalogue of their discarded suitors.
2. The poet may here possibly allude to some well-known characters of his time. Bishop Burnet says: "The Lady Dysart came to have so much power over Lord Lauderdale, that it lessened him very much in the esteem of all the world; for he delivered himself up to all her humours and passions." And we know that Anne Clarges, at first the mistress, and afterward the wife of General Monk, duke of Albemarle, gained the most undue influence over that intrepid commander, who, though never afraid of bullets, was often terrified by the fury of his wife.