CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
271
Where none escape, but such as branded
With red-hot irons, have past bare-handed;
And if they cannot read one verse 55
I' 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 bail
And mainprize for him, to the jail, 60
To answer with his vessel,[2] all
That might disastrously befall.
He thought it now the fittest juncture
To give the Lady a rencounter;
T' acquaint her with his expedition, 65
And 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: 70
All 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, 75
To set his conscience on the rack;
And in pursuance of his urging
Of articles perform'd, and scourging,
And all things else, upon his part,
Demand delivery of her heart, 80
With red-hot irons, have past bare-handed;
And if they cannot read one verse 55
I' 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 bail
And mainprize for him, to the jail, 60
To answer with his vessel,[2] all
That might disastrously befall.
He thought it now the fittest juncture
To give the Lady a rencounter;
T' acquaint her with his expedition, 65
And 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: 70
All 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, 75
To set his conscience on the rack;
And in pursuance of his urging
Of 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.
