HIS LADY.]
HUDIBRAS.
431
All I have done, unjust or ill,
Was in obedience to your will, 210
And all the blame that can be due
Falls to your cruelty, and you.
Nor are those scandals I confest,
Against my will and interest,
More than is daily done, of course, 215
By all men, when they're under force
Whence some, upon the rack, confess
What th' hangman and their prompters please;
But are no sooner out of pain,
Than they deny it all again. 220
But when the devil turns confessor,
Truth is a crime he takes no pleasure
To hear or pardon, like the founder
Of liars, whom they all claim under:[1]
And therefore when I told him none, 225
I think it was the wiser done.
Nor am I without precedent,
The first that on th' adventure went;
All mankind ever did of course,
And daily does[2] the same, or worse. 230
For what romance can show a lover,
That had a lady to recover,
And did not steer a nearer course.
To fall aboard in his amours?
And what at first was held a crime. 235
Has turn'd to hon'rable in time.
To what a height did infant Rome,
By ravishing of women, come?[3]
Was in obedience to your will, 210
And all the blame that can be due
Falls to your cruelty, and you.
Nor are those scandals I confest,
Against my will and interest,
More than is daily done, of course, 215
By all men, when they're under force
Whence some, upon the rack, confess
What th' hangman and their prompters please;
But are no sooner out of pain,
Than they deny it all again. 220
But when the devil turns confessor,
Truth is a crime he takes no pleasure
To hear or pardon, like the founder
Of liars, whom they all claim under:[1]
And therefore when I told him none, 225
I think it was the wiser done.
Nor am I without precedent,
The first that on th' adventure went;
All mankind ever did of course,
And daily does[2] the same, or worse. 230
For what romance can show a lover,
That had a lady to recover,
And did not steer a nearer course.
To fall aboard in his amours?
And what at first was held a crime. 235
Has turn'd to hon'rable in time.
To what a height did infant Rome,
By ravishing of women, come?[3]
- ↑ See St John viii. 44. Butler, in his MS. Common-place Book, says,As lyars, with long use of telling lyes,
Forget at length if they are true or false,
So those that plod on anything too long,
Know nothing whether th' are in the right or wrong;
For what are all your demonstrations else.
But to the higher powers of sense appeals;
Senses that th' undervalue and contemn
As if it lay below their wits and them. - ↑ Var. daily do, in all editions to 1716 inclusive.
- ↑ This refers to the well-known story of the Rape of the Sabines.
