But th' other, that had broke the peace,
And head of knighthood, they release,
Tho' a delinquent false and forged,
Yet b'ing a stranger he's enlarged ;'
While his comrade, that did no hurt,
Is clapp'd up fast in prison for't:
So justice, while she winks at crimes,
Stumbles on innocence sometimes,3

• Tho' a delinquent false and forged,

1175

Yet b'ing a stranger he's enlarged;] Dr. Grey supposes very justly, that this may allude to the case of sir Bernard Gascoign, who was condemned at Colchester with sir Charles Lucas and sir George Lisle, but respited from execution on account of his being an Italian, and a person of some interest in his own country See lord Clarendon's History, vol. iii. p. 137.

• So justice, while she winks at crimes,

Stumbles on innocence sometimes.]

Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.

Juv. ii. 1. 63.

The plays and poems of this date commonly ended with a moral reflection.

PART I. CANTO III.

THE ARGUMENT.'

The scatter'd rout return and rally,
Surround the place; the Knight does sally,
And is made pris'ner: then they seize
Th'enchanted fort by storm, release
Crowdero, and put the Squire in's place;
I should have first said Hudibras.

THE ARGUMENT.] The author follows the example of Spenser, and the Italian poets, in the division of his work into parts and cantos. Spenser contents himself with a short title to each division, as "The Legend of Temperance," and the like. Butler more fully acquaints his readers what they are to expect, by an argument in the same style with the poem; and frequently convinces them, that he knew how to enliven so dry a thing as a summary. Neither Virgil, Ovid, nor Statius wrote arguments in verse to their respective poems; but critics and grammarians have taken the pains to do it for them.

HUDIBRAS.

CANTO III.

Ay me! what perils do environ

The man that meddles with cold iron !!
What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps
Do dog him still with after claps !

For tho' dame Fortune seem to smile,"
And leer upon him for a while,

Ay me! what perils do environ

5

The man that meddles with cold iron!] A parody on the verses in Spenser's Fairy Queen :

Ay me, how many perils do enfold

The virtuous man to make him daily fall.

These two lines are become a kind of proverbial expression, partly owing to the moral reflection, and partly to the jingle of the double rhyme they are applied sometimes to a man mortally wounded with a sword, and sometimes to a lady who pricks her finger with a needle. Butler, in his MS. Common Place-book, on this passage, observes: "Cold iron in Greenland burns as grievously as hot." Some editions read, “ Ah me,” from the Belgic or Teutonic. "For tho' dame Fortune seem to smile,

And leer upon him for a while,

She'll after shew him, in the nick

Of all his glories, a dog-trick.]

Οἷς μὲν δίδωσιν, οἷς δ ̓ ἀφαιρεῖται τύχη.
Τὸ τῆς τύχης τοι μεταβολὰς πολλὰς ἔχει.
Ως ποικίλον πρᾶγμ ̓ ἐτι καὶ πλάνον τύχη.

Brunck. Gnom. Poet. p. 242.

Fortuna sævo læta negotio, et
Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax,
Transmutat incertos honores,
Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna.

Hor. Carm. lib. iii. 29. 1. 49.

She'll after shew him, in the nick
Of all his glories, a dog-trick.

This any man may sing or say

I' th' ditty call'd, What if a day?3

10

For Hudibras, who thought he'ad won
The field as certain as a gun,

And having routed the whole troop,
With victory was cock-a-hoop ;*

Thinking he'ad done enough to purchase
Thanksgiving-day among the churches,
Wherein his mettle and brave worth
Might be explain'd by holder-forth,
And register'd by fame eternal,
In deathless pages of diurnal;5
Found in few minutes, to his cost,
He did but count without his host;
And that a turn-stile is more certain
Than, in events of war, Dame Fortune.

• This any man may sing or say,

15

20

I' th' ditty call'd, What if a day?] An old ballad, which begins : What if a day, or a month, or a year

Crown thy delights,

With a thousand wish't contentings!

Cannot the chance of a night or an hour,
Cross thy delights,

With as many sad tormentings?

With victory was cock-a-hoop ;] This is crowing or rejoicing. Cock-on-hoop signifies extravagance: the cock drawn out of a barrel, and laid upon the hoop, while the liquor runs to waste, is a proper emblem of inconsiderate conduct.

• In deathless pages of diurnal;] The gazettes or newspapers, on the side of the parliament, were published daily, and called Diurnals. See Cleveland's character of a diurnal-maker.