CANTO III.]
HUDIBRAS.
249
The learned Scaliger complain'd
'Gainst what Copernicus maintain'd,[1]
That in twelve hundred years, and odd,[2]
The sun had left his ancient road,
And nearer to the Earth is come, 885
'Bove fifty thousand miles from home:
Swore 'twas a most notorious flam,
And he that had so little shame
To vent such fopperies abroad,
Deserv'd to have his rump well claw'd: 890
Which Monsieur Bodin hearing, swore
That he deserv'd the rod much more,[3]
That durst upon a truth give doom,
He knew less than the pope of Rome.[4]
Cardan believ'd great states depend 895
Upon the tip o' th' Bear's tail's end;[5]
That as she whisk'd it t'wards the sun,
Strow'd mighty empires up and down;
- ↑ Copernicus thought that the eccentricity of the sun, or the obliquity of the ecliptic, had been diminished by many parts since the times of Ptolemy and Hipparchus. On which Scaliger observed that the writings of Copernicus deserved a sponge, or their author a rod.
- ↑ Instead of this and the seven following lines, the editions of 1664 read:
About the sun's and earth's approach,
And swore that he, that dar'd to broach
Such paltry fopperies abroad,
Deserv'd to have his rump well claw'd. - ↑ John Bodin, an eminent geographer and lawyer, born at Angers, died at Laon, 1596, aged 67. He agreed with Copernicus, and other famous astronomers, that the circle of the earth had approached nearer to the sun than it was formerly. He was alternately superstitious and sceptical; and is said to have been at different times, a Protestant, a Papist, a deist, a sorcerer, a Jew, and an atheist.
- ↑ Var. He knew no more than th' pope of Rome, in the editions of 1664.
- ↑ Cardan, a physician and astrologer, born at Pavia, 1501. He held that particular stars influenced particular countries, and that the fate of the greatest kingdoms in Europe was determined by the tail of Ursa Major. He cast the nativity of Edward VI., and foretold his death, it is said, correctly. He then foretold the time of his own death, and when the day drew near, finding himself in perfect health, he starved himself to death, rather than disgrace his science. Scaliger said that in certain things he appeared superior to human understanding, and in a great many others inferior to that of little children. See Bayle's Dict. Tennemann's History of Philosophy, p. 263.
