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Or wait for customers between

The pillar-rows in Lincoln's-Inn ;
Where vouchers, forgers, common bail,

And affidavit-men ne'er fail

T'expose to fale all forts of oaths,
According to their ears and clothes,
Their only necessary tools,

Besides the gospel, and their souls;

And when ye're furnish'd with all purveys,

I fhall be ready at your service.

I would not give, quoth Hudibras,

A ftraw to understand a cafe,

Without the admirable skill

To wind and manage it at will;

To veer, and tack, and fteer a cause,
Against the weather-gage of laws;

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And ring the changes upon cafes,

As plain as noses upon faces:

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As you have well instructed me,

For which you've earn'd, here 'tis, your fee. I long to practise your advice,

And try the fubtle artifice;

To bait a letter as you bid,

As, not long after, thus he did :
For, having pump'd up all his wit,
And humm'd upon it, thus he writ.

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ΑΝ

HEROICAL EPISTLE

OF

HUDIBRAS TO HIS LADY.

I WHO was once as great as Cæfar,
Am now reduc'd to Nebuchadnezzar ;
And from as fam'd a conqueror,

As ever took degree in war,

Or did his exercise in battle,

By you turn'd out to graze with cattle.
For fince I am deny'd access
To all my earthly happiness,

Am fall'n from the paradise

Of your good graces, and fair eyes;
Loft to the world, and you, I'm sent
To everlasting banishment,

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Where all the hopes I had t' have won

Your heart, b'ing dafh'd, will break my own.

Yet if you were not so severe

To pass your doom before you hear,
You'd find, upon my just defence,

How much y' have wrong'd my innocence.
That once I made a vow to you,

Which yet is unperform'd 'tis true;
But not because it is unpaid

'Tis violated, though delay'd.

Or if it were, it is no fault.

So heinous, as you'ld have it thought;
To undergo the loss of ears,

Like vulgar hackney perjurers:

For there's a difference in the cafe,

Between the noble and the base;

Who always are obferv'd to 've done 't
Upon as diff'rent an account;

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The one for great and weighty cause,

To falve, in honour, ugly flaws;

For none are like to do it fooner,

Than those who 're niceft of their honour;
The other, for base gain and pay,

Forfwear and perjure by the day,

And make th' expofing and retailing
Their fouls, and confciences, a calling.
It is no scandal nor aspersion,
Upon a great and noble perfon,

To say he nat❜rally abhorr'd

Th' old fashion'd trick to keep his word,
Tho' 'tis perfidiousness and shame,

In meaner men, to do the fame:
For to be able to forget,

Is found more useful to the great
Than gout, or deafness, or bad eyes,
To make 'em pafs for wond'rous wife.

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