"Who swears, &c. swears more oaths at once O Booker! Booker! how com'st thou to lack Et cætera, it is so abominous. The Trojan nag was not so fully lin'd; Og the great commissary, and which is worse, A Yorkshire wea bit, longer than a mile." V. 651. Or the French league, &c.] The holy league in France, for excluding Henry IV. from the crown, and extirpating the Prostestant religion in that kingdom, was founded upon the same principles as the solemn league and covenant in this country, and differed only in circumstances, both being equally the offspring of the wildest fanaticism. V. 667-8. But to that purpose first surrender The Fiddler, &c.] This was meant as a ridicule on the clamour of the Parliament against the King's servants, whom they denominated "evil counsellors," and demanded to have them given up to justice. V. 675. --------- dictum factum.] Said and done. V.689. Thou tail of worship, &c.] A reflection upon the justices of the peace in those times; many of whom, as has already been observed, were of the lowest ranks of the people, and the best probably were butchers, carpenters, horse-keepers, and the like. The Parliament appointed mean persons justices of the peace, that they might the more easily govern them; and Cromwell afterwards took the same method in the choice of high sheriffs, whom he appointed from yeomen, or the lowest tradesmen that he could confide in, the expense of retinue and treating the judges being taken away. It is scarcely necessary to say, that in those times no qualification in landed or personal property, as is the case at present, was require to enable a person to act as a justice of the peace. The same is the practice in America at the present day, where it is by no means uncommon to find the keeper of a hedge ale-house, or a farmer living in a log-hut, a justice of the peace. V. 699. secure from wooden blow.] That is, from the assaults of a cudgel. V. 702. The caterwauling brethren.] Butler probably designed this as a sneer upon the Assembly of Divines, whose curious and subtle debates he likewise ridicules in his Remains. "Mr. Selden," says he, "visits the assembly as Persians used to see wild asses fight; when the Commons have tired him with new law, these brethren refresh him with their mad gospel: they lately were gravelled betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho; they knew not the distance betwixt those two places; one cried twenty miles, another ten. It was concluded seven, for this reason, that fish was brought from Jericho to Jerusalem market: Mr. Selden smiled and said, "perhaps the fish were salt fish, and so stopped their mouths." As to their annotations, many of them were no better than Peter Harrison's, who observed of the two tables of stone, that they were made of Shittim wood. V. 706. -the land and water saints] The Presbyterians and Anabaptists. V. 713. Was there no felony, &c.] These and the licensing of ale-houses. &c. were more properly cognizable by him as a justice of the peace, than the interruption of sports in which the people from time immemorial had been accustomed to indulge. V. 718. For which thou statute might'st alledge.] The justice might plead the law for his interfering in certain cases; but Talgol argues that in the present instance he steps beyond the limits of his jurisdiction. V. 721. Did no committee sit, &c.] Some account has already been given of committees aud their oppressions to which the author of the poem entitled "Sir John Birkenhead revived," alludes in the following lines: "The plough stands still, and trade is small, For goods, lands, towns, and cities; Nay, I dare say, the devil and all Pay tribute to committees." Walker, in his History of Independency, observes, "That to historize them at large (namely, the grievances from the committees) would require a volume as big as the Book of Martyrs; and that the people were then generally of opinion, that they might as easily find charity in hell as in any committee; and that the King hath taken down one star-chamber, and the Parliament have set up a hundred." V. 725. To cheat with holiness and zeal.] Taylor, the water poet, speaking of such fanatical hypocrites, says, "I want the knowledge of the thriving art, A holy outside, and a hollow heart." In some of the country parts of the north of England, they have a proverbial expression which is very often applied to the modern Puritan, a street saint, a house devil. V. 741-2. Was I for this entitled Sir, And girt with trusty sword and spur.] The Knight commences his reply to Talgol's invectives somewhat in the manner of his illustrious prototype, Don Quixote, upon similar occasions. He boasts proudly of his title which entitles him to be addressed Sir, and alludes to his privilege of wearing a sword and spurs by virtue of his knighthood. V. 751. Make nat'ral death appear thy work.] Hu-. dibras reproaching the butcher with many of the cheats of his trade, accuses him of trimming up the flesh of cattle that had died of natural diseases for sale, the same as if they had been slaughtered. V. 767-8. Nor shall it e'er be said, that wight With gauntlet blue, and bases white.] Alluding, in all probability, to the butcher's wearing a blue frock and white apron, a common dress for persons of this avocation. V.769. And round blunt truncheon, &c.] The butcher's steel upon which he whets his knife. V. 772.-or Grizel stir mood.] Chaucer, in his Clerk of Oxford's Tale, gives an account of the remarkable trials made by Walter, Marquis of Saluce, in Lower Lombardy, in Italy, upon the patience of his wife Grizel, by sending a ruffian to take from her her daughter and son, two little infants, under the pretence of murdering them; in stripping her of her costly robes, and sending her home to her poor father in a tattered condition, pretending that he had obtained a divorce from the pope, for the satisfaction of his people, to marry another lady of equal rank with himself. To all these trials she cheerfully submitted: upon which he took her home to his palace; and his pretended lady and her brother, who were brought to court, proved to be her son and daughter. V. 781-2-3. But Pallas came, in shape of rust, And, 'twixt the spring and hammer thrust Her Gorgon shield, &c.] This and another passage in this canto, are the only places where deities are introduced in this poem. It may be asked, as if it was not intended for an epic poem, and consequently none of the heroes in it need supernatural assistance, how then comes Pallas to be ushered in here, and Mars afterwards? Probably to ridicule Homer and Virgil, whose heroes, scarce perform any action, even the most feasible, without the sensible aid of a deity; and to manifest that it was not want of abilities, but choice, that made our poet avoid such subterfuges. He has given us a sample of his judgment in this way of writing in the passage before us, which, taken in its naked meaning, is only, that the Knight's pistol was, for want of use, grown so rusty that it would not fire, or, in other words, that the rust was the cause of his disappointment. V. 787. - Petronel.] A horse pistol. Wood wounds and bruises honour more.] That is, though sharper wounds may be inflicted by a sword, it is more disgraceful to a man of honour to be beaten by a cudgel. V. 843-4. He clapp'd them underneath the tail Of steed, with pricks as sharp as nail.] This trick was likewise practised upon Don Quixote's Rosinante, and Sancho's Dapple. "That mischief," says the inimitable historian of the Knight of the Rueful Countenance, describing his adventures and those of his Squire at Barcelona, " from which all mischief is produced, ordained, that two bold and impudent boys, more mischievous than mischief itself, should squeeze themselves into the crowd, and approaching Rosinante and Dapple, clap a handful of furze under the tail of each: the poor animals feeling the severity of this new kind of spurs, augmented the pain, by pressing their tails more closely to their buttocks; so that, after a thousand plunges, they came with their riders to the ground, to the unutterable shame and indignation of Don Quixote; who, with great dispatch, delivered the posteriors of his companion from this disagreeable plumage; while Sancho performed the same kind office for kis friend Dapple." V. 864. But Mars, who still protects the stout.] We may here observe the judgment of the poet. Mars is introduced to the Knight's advantage, as Pallas had been before to his disappointment: it was reasonable that the god of war should come to his assistance, since a goddess had interested herself on the side of his enemies, agreeable to Homer and Virgil. Had the Knight directly fallen to the ground, he had probably been disabled from future action, and consequently the battle would have been too soon determined. Besides, we may observe a beautiful gradation to the honour of the hero : he falls upon the bear, the bear breaks loose, and the spectators run; so that the Knight's fall is the primary cause of this rout, and he might justly, as he afterwards did, ascribe the honour of the victory to himself. V. 865. In pudding time.] That is, in the lucky or critical moment, when his assistance was most required. |