ANSWER.]
HUDIBRAS.
441
And, when the settlement's in force,
Take all the rest for better or worse; 130
For money has a pow'r above
The stars, and fate, to manage love,
Whose arrows, learned poets hold,
That never miss, are tipp'd with gold.[1]
And tho' some say, the parents' claims 135
To make love in their children's names,[2]
Who, many times, at once provide
The nurse, the husband, and the bride
Feel darts and charms, attracts and flames,
And woo, and contract, in their names, 140
And as they christen, use to marry 'em,
And, like their gossips, answer for 'em;
Is not to give in matrimony,
But sell and prostitute for money.
'Tis better than their own betrothing, 145
Who often do 't for worse than nothing;
And when they're at their own dispose,
With greater disadvantage choose.
All this is right; but, for the course
You take to do 't, by fraud or force, 150
'Tis so ridiculous, as soon
As told, 'tis never to be done,
No more than setters can betray,[3]
That tell what tricks they are to play.
Take all the rest for better or worse; 130
For money has a pow'r above
The stars, and fate, to manage love,
Whose arrows, learned poets hold,
That never miss, are tipp'd with gold.[1]
And tho' some say, the parents' claims 135
To make love in their children's names,[2]
Who, many times, at once provide
The nurse, the husband, and the bride
Feel darts and charms, attracts and flames,
And woo, and contract, in their names, 140
And as they christen, use to marry 'em,
And, like their gossips, answer for 'em;
Is not to give in matrimony,
But sell and prostitute for money.
'Tis better than their own betrothing, 145
Who often do 't for worse than nothing;
And when they're at their own dispose,
With greater disadvantage choose.
All this is right; but, for the course
You take to do 't, by fraud or force, 150
'Tis so ridiculous, as soon
As told, 'tis never to be done,
No more than setters can betray,[3]
That tell what tricks they are to play.
- ↑ In Ovid Cupid employs two arrows, one of gold, and the other of lead: the former causing love, the latter aversion.
- ↑ Though thus in all editions, claim and name would be better readings: for claim is the nominative case to is in verse 143.
- ↑ Setter, a term frequent in the comedies of the last century: sometimes it seems to be a pimp, sometimes a spy, but most usually an attendant on a cheating gamester, who introduces unpractised youths to be pillaged, by
But Mr Cheynell (the Nonconformist) behaved still more irreverently at the funeral of that eminent divine Chillingworth. After a reflecting speech on the deceased, in which he declaimed against the use of reason in religious matters, he threw his book, 'The Religion of Protestants, or a safe way to Salvation,' into the grave, saying, "Get thee gone, thou cursed book, which has seduced so many precious souls; get thee gone, thou corrupt, rotten book, earth to earth, dust to dust: get thee into the place of rotteuness, that thou mayst rot with thy author, and see corruption." See Neal's Puritans, vol. iii. p. 102.
