448
HUDIBRAS.
[THE LADY'S
While all the favours we afford 345Are but to girt you with the sword,To fight our battles in our steads,And have your brains beat out o' your heads;Encounter, in despite of nature,And fight, at once, with fire and water, 350With pirates, rocks, and storms, and seas,Our pride and vanity t' appease;Kill one another, and cut throats,For our good graces, and best thoughts;To do your exercise for honour, 355And have your brains beat out the sooner;Or crack'd, as learnedly, uponThings that are never to be known:And still appear the more industrious,The more your projects are prepost'rous; 360To square the circle of the arts,And run stark mad to show your parts;Expound the oracle of laws,And turn them which way we see cause;Be our solicitors and agents, 365And stand for us in all engagements.And these are all the mighty pow'rs You vainly boast to cry down ours: And what in real value's wanting, Supply with vapouring and ranting: 370Because yourselves are terrified,And stoop to one another's pride: Believe we have as little wit To be out-hector'd, and submit:By your example, lose that right 375In treaties, which we gain'd in fight:[1] And terrified into an awe,Pass on ourselves a Salique law;[2]
- ↑ England, in every period of her history, has been thought more successful in war than in negotiation. Congreve, reflecting upon Queen Anne's last ministry, in his epistle to Lord Cobham, says:Be far that guilt, be never known that shame, That Britain should retract her rightful claim, Or stain with pen the triumphs of her sword!
- ↑ The Salique law bars the succession of females to some inheritances.
