266
HUDIBRAS.
[EPISTLE TO
And saucily pretend to know
More than your dividend comes to:
You'll find the thing will not be done
With ignorance and face alone: 90
No, tho' ye've purchas'd to your name,
In history, so great a fame;
That now your talent's so well known,
For having all belief out-grown,
That ev'ry strange prodigious tale 95
Is measur'd by your German scale,[1]
By which the virtuosi try
The magnitude of ev'ry lie,
Cast up to what it does amount,
And place the bigg'st to your account; 100
That all those stories that are laid
Too truly to you, and those made,
Are now still charg'd upon your score,
And lesser authors nam'd no more.
Alas! that faculty betrays[2] 105
Those soonest it designs to raise;
And all your vain renown will spoil,
As guns o'ercharg'd the more recoil;
Though he that has but impudence,
To all things has a fair pretence; 110
And put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim:
Tho' you have tried that nothing's borne
With greater ease than public scorn,
That all affronts do still give place 115
To your impenetrable face;
That makes your way thro' all affairs,
As pigs thro' hedges creep with theirs:
Yet as 'tis counterfeit and brass,
You must not think 'twill always pass; 120
More than your dividend comes to:
You'll find the thing will not be done
With ignorance and face alone: 90
No, tho' ye've purchas'd to your name,
In history, so great a fame;
That now your talent's so well known,
For having all belief out-grown,
That ev'ry strange prodigious tale 95
Is measur'd by your German scale,[1]
By which the virtuosi try
The magnitude of ev'ry lie,
Cast up to what it does amount,
And place the bigg'st to your account; 100
That all those stories that are laid
Too truly to you, and those made,
Are now still charg'd upon your score,
And lesser authors nam'd no more.
Alas! that faculty betrays[2] 105
Those soonest it designs to raise;
And all your vain renown will spoil,
As guns o'ercharg'd the more recoil;
Though he that has but impudence,
To all things has a fair pretence; 110
And put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim:
Tho' you have tried that nothing's borne
With greater ease than public scorn,
That all affronts do still give place 115
To your impenetrable face;
That makes your way thro' all affairs,
As pigs thro' hedges creep with theirs:
Yet as 'tis counterfeit and brass,
You must not think 'twill always pass; 120
- ↑ All incredible stories are now measured by your standard. One German mile is equal to five English miles.
- ↑ Var. Destroys in some early editions.
and at last was archbishop of York." Sir Paul was one of the first establishers of the Royal Society, which, in the dawn of science, listening to many things that appeared trifling and incredible to the generality of the people, became the butt and sport of the wits of the time.
