And tho' you overcame the bear, 995
The dogs beat you at Brentford fair;
Where sturdy butchers broke your noddle,
And handled you like a fop-doodle.[1]
Quoth Hudibras, I now perceive
You are no conj'rer, by your leave; 1000
That paltry story is untrue,
And forg'd to cheat such gulls as you.
Not true? quoth he; howe'er you vapour,
I can what I affirm make appear;
Whachum shall justify 't to your face, 1005
And prove he was upon the place:
He play'd the saltinbancho's part,[2]
Transform'd t' a Frenchman by my art;
He stole your cloak, and pick'd your pocket,
Chous'd and caldes'd you like a blockhead,[3] 1010
And what you lost I can produce,
If you deny it, here i' the house.
Quoth Hudibras, I do believe
That argument's demonstrative;
Ralpho, bear witness, and go fetch us 1015
A constable to seize the wretches:
For tho' they're both false knaves and cheats,
Impostors, jugglers, counterfeits,
I'll make them serve for perpendic'lars,
As true as e'er were us'd by bricklayers:[4] 1020
They're guilty, by their own confessions.
Of felony, and at the sessions,
Upon the bench I will so handle 'em,
That the vibration of this pendulum
- ↑ That is, a silly, vain, empty-pated fellow.
- ↑ Saltimbanque is a French word, signifying a quack or mountebank. Perhaps it was originally Italian.
- ↑ Caldes'd is a word of the poet's own coining, and signifies, in the opinion of Warburton, "putting the fortune-teller upon you," as the Chaldeans were great fortune-tellers. Others suppose it may be derived from the Caldees, or Culdees. In Butler's Remains, vol. i. 24, it seems to mean hoodwinked or blinded.
Asham'd that men so grave and wise
Should be chaldes'd by gnats and flies. - ↑ i.e. perfectly true or upright, like a bricklayer's plumb-line.
lication for incidents in our hero's life, the astrologer betrays his ignorance of the facts, and Butler ingeniously contrives to publish the cheat.
