440
HUDIBRAS.
[THE LADY'S
For love shou'd, like a deodand,
Still fall to th' owner of the land;[1]
And where there's substance for its ground, 105
Cannot but be more firm and sound,
Than that which has the slighter basis
Of airy virtue, wit, and graces;
Which is of such thin subtlety,
It steals and creeps in at the eye, 110
And, as it can't endure to stay,
Steals out again, as nice a way.[2]
But love that its extraction owns
From solid gold and precious stones,
Must, like its shining parents, prove 115
As solid and as glorious love.
Hence 'tis you have no way t' express
Our charms and graces but by these;
For what are lips, and eyes, and teeth,
Which beauty invades and conquers with, 120
But rubies, pearls, and diamonds,
With which a philter love commands?[3]
This is the way all parents prove,
In managing their children's love;
That force 'em t'intermarry and wed, 125
As if th' were bury'ng of the dead;
Cast earth to earth, as in the grave,[4]
To join in wedlock all they have,
Still fall to th' owner of the land;[1]
And where there's substance for its ground, 105
Cannot but be more firm and sound,
Than that which has the slighter basis
Of airy virtue, wit, and graces;
Which is of such thin subtlety,
It steals and creeps in at the eye, 110
And, as it can't endure to stay,
Steals out again, as nice a way.[2]
But love that its extraction owns
From solid gold and precious stones,
Must, like its shining parents, prove 115
As solid and as glorious love.
Hence 'tis you have no way t' express
Our charms and graces but by these;
For what are lips, and eyes, and teeth,
Which beauty invades and conquers with, 120
But rubies, pearls, and diamonds,
With which a philter love commands?[3]
This is the way all parents prove,
In managing their children's love;
That force 'em t'intermarry and wed, 125
As if th' were bury'ng of the dead;
Cast earth to earth, as in the grave,[4]
To join in wedlock all they have,
- ↑ Any moving thing which occasions the death of a man is forfeited to the lord of the manor. It was originally intended that he should dispose of it in acts of charity: hence the name deodand, meaning a thing given, or rather forfeited, to God, for the pacification of his wrath, in case of misadventure, whereby a Christian man cometh to a violent end, without the fault of any reasonable creature. The crown frequently granted this right to individuals, within certain limits, or annexed it to lands, by which it became vested in the lord of the manor.
- ↑ Farquhar has this thought in his dialogue between Archer and Cherry. See the Beaux Stratagem.
- ↑ Out of which love makes a philter.
- ↑ The Burial Office, observes Dr Grey, was scandalously ridiculed. One Brooke, a London lecturer, at the burial of Mr John Gough, used the following profanity:—Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
Here's the pit, and in thou must.
Mercurius Rusticus, No. 9.
