CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
271
Where none escape, but such as brandedWith red-hot irons, have past bare-handed;And if they cannot read one verse 55I' th' Psalms, must sing it, and that's worse.[1]He, therefore, judging it below him,To tempt a shame the dev'l might owe him,Resolv'd to leave the Squire for bailAnd mainprize for him, to the jail, 60To answer with his vessel,[2] allThat might disastrously befall.He thought it now the fittest junctureTo give the Lady a rencounter;T' acquaint her with his expedition, 65And conquest o'er the fierce magician;Describe the manner of the fray,And show the spoils he brought away;His bloody scourging aggravate,The number of the blows and weight: 70All which might probably succeed, And gain belief he 'ad done the deed: Which he resolv'd t' enforce, and spare No pawning of his soul to swear;But, rather than produce his back, 75To set his conscience on the rack; And in pursuance of his urgingOf articles perform'd, and scourging, And all things else, upon his part, Demand delivery of her heart, 80
- ↑ In former times, when scholarship was rare and almost confined to priests, a person who was tried for any capital crime, except treason or sacrilege, might obtain an acquittal by praying his clergy; the meaning of which was to call for a Latin Bible, and read a passage in it, generally selected from the Psalms. If he exhibited this capacity, the ordinary certified quod legit, and he was saved as a person of learning, who might be useful to the state; otherwise he was hanged. Hence the saying among the people, that if they could not read their neck-verse at sessions, they must sing it at the gallows, it being customary to give out a psalm to be sung preliminary to the execution.
- ↑ In the use of this term the saints unwittingly concurred with the old philosophers, who also called the body a vessel.
country," by the verdict or solemn opinion of a jury. "By God" only, would formerly have meant the ordeal, which referred the case immediately to the divine judgment.
