For then I'll take another course,

And foon reduce you all by force.

This faid, he clapt his hand on fword,
To fhew he meant to keep his word.
But Talgol, who had long fuppreft
Inflamed wrath in glowing breast,

680

O' th'self, old ir'n, and other baggage,

With which thy fteed of bones and leather

Has broke his wind in halting hither;

How durft th', I fay, adventure thus
T'oppofe thy lumber against us?
Could thine impertinence find out

695

No work t' employ itself about,

Where thou, fecure from wooden blow,
Thy bufy vanity might show?

7,00

Was

Ver. 683, 684.] It way be asked, Why Talgol was the first in answering the Knight, when it seems more incumbent upon the Bearward to make a defence? Probably Talgol might then be a Cavalier; for the character the Poet has given him doth not infer the contrary; and his, anfwer carries ftrong indications to juftify the conjecture.

Ver. 694.1 Is lam'd, and tir'd in halting hither: Thus it ftands in the two Irish editions of 1663.

Was no difpute a-foot between

The caterwauling Brethren?

No fubtle question rais'd among

Thofe out-o'-their wits, and those i' th' wrong?

No prize between those combatants

705

O' th' times, the land and water faints,

Where thou might'ft ftickle, without hazard

Of outrage to thy hide and mazzard,

And not, for want of business, come

To us to be thus troublesome,

To interrupt our better fort
Of difputants, and fpoil our fport?
Was there no felony, no bawd,
Cutpurfe, or burglary abroad?
No stolen pig, nor plunder'd goofe,
To tie thee up from breaking loofe?
No ale unlicens'd, broken hedge,
For which thou ftatute might'ft alledge,
To keep thee busy from foul evil,

And fhame due to thee from the Devil?
Did no Committee fit, where he
Might cut out journey-work for thee,
And fet th' a task, with fubornation,
To ftitch up fale and fequeftration,
To cheat, with holiness and zeal,
All parties and the common-weal?

Much better had it been for thee

He 'ad kept thee where th' art us'd to be,
Or fent th' on business any whither,

So he had never brought thee hither:

716

715

720

725

730

But

But if th' haft brain enough in fcull
To keep itself in lodging whole,
And not provoke the rage of stones,
And cudgels to thy hide and bones,
Tremble, and vanish while thou may'st,
Which I'll not promise if thou stay'st.
At this the Knight grew high in wroth,
And lifting hands and eyes up both,

735

Three times he fmote on ftomach ftout,

From whence, at length, these words broke out: 740

Was I for this entitled Sir,

And girt with trusty sword and spur,
For fame and honour to wage battle,
Thus to be brav'd by foe to cattle?
Not all that pride that makes thee fwell
As big as thou doft blown-up veal,
Nor all thy tricks and fleights to cheat,
And fell thy carrion for good meat;

745

Not

Ver. 732.] To keep within its lodging. Edit. 1674) 1684, 1689, 1694, 1700. Reftored to the prefent reading 17.4.

Ver. 741.] Hudibras fhewed lefs patience upon this than Don Quixote did upon a like occafion, where he calmly diftinguishes betwixt an affront and an injury. The Knight is irritated at the fatirical answer of Talgol, and vents his rage in a manner exactly fuited to is character; and when his paffion was worked up to a height too great to be expreffed in words, he immediately falls into action; but, alas! at his firft entrance into it, he meets with an unlucky disappointment; an omen that the fuccefs would be as indifferent as the cause in which he was engaged.

Not all thy magic to repair

Decay'd old-age in tough lean ware,

750

Make natural death appear thy work,

And stop the gangrene in ftale pork;
Not all that force that makes thee proud,
Because by bullock ne'er withstood;

Though arm'd with all thy cleavers, knives,
And axes, made to hew down lives,

755

Shall fave or help thee to evade

The hand of Juftice, or this blade,
Which I, her fword-bearer, do carry,
For civil deed and military:

760

Nor fhall these words, of venom base,
Which thou haft from their native place,
Thy ftomach, pump'd to fling on me,

Go unreveng'd, though I am free;

Thou down the fame throat fhall devour them:

765

Like tainted beef, and pay dear for them:

Nor fhall it e'er be faid that wight

With gantlet blue and bafes white,
And round blunt truncheon by his fide,
So great a man at arms defy'd'

With words far bitterer thah wormwood,
That would in Job or Grizel ftir mood.

770

Dogs.

Ver. 751.] Turn death of nature to thy work. In the two first editions of 1663.

Dogs with their tongues their wounds do heal,
But men with hands, as thou shalt feel.

This faid, with hafty rage he snatch'd
His gun-fhot, that in holsters watch'd,
And bending cock, he level'd full
Against th' outfide of Talgol's fcull,
Vowing that he should ne'er ftir further,
Nor henceforth cow or bullock murther:
But Pallas came in fhape of Ruft,
And 'twixt the spring and hammer thrust
Her gorgon fhield, which made the cock
Stand ftiff, as 'twere transform'd to stock.

775

780

Meanwhile

Ver. 781-783.] This, and another paffage in this Canto, are the only places where deities are introduced in this Poem: as it was not intended for an Epic Poem, confequently none of the heroes in it needed fupernatural affiftance: how then comes Pallas to be ushered in here, and Mars afterwards? Probably to ridicule Homer and Virgil, whofe heroes fcarce perform any action (even the moft feasible) without the fenfible aid of a deity; and to manifeft that it was not the want of abilities, but choice, that made our Poet avoid fuch fubterfuges. He has given us a fample of his judgment in this way of writing in the paffage before us, which, taken in its naked meaning, is only, That the Knight's piftol was, for want of ufe, grown fo rufty, that it would not fire; or, in other words, that the ruft was the cause of his difappointment.

Ver. 784.] Stand fiff, as if 'twere turn'd t' a flock. In editions 1674, 1684, 1689, 1694, 1700, 1704. Reftored 1710.