That Echo, from the hollow ground,
His doleful wailings did resound
More wistfully, by many times,
Than in small poets' splay-foot rhymes,
That make her, in their ruthful stories,
To answer to int❜rogatories,

And most unconscionably depose

To things of which she nothing knows;
And when she has said all she can say,
"Tis wrested to the lover's fancy.
Quoth he, O whither, wicked Bruin,
Art thou fled to my-Echo, ruin.

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a tragedy now lost, had a scene of this kind, which Aristophanes makes sport with in his Feast of Ceres.

In the Anthologia, lib. iii. 6. is an epigram of Leonidas, and in the 4th book are six lines by Gauradas. See Brunck's Analecta, vol. ii. α Αχὼ φίλα μοι συγκαταίνεσόν τί.β τί; α 'Ερῶ Κορίσκας· ὁ δέ μ' οὐ φιλεῖ.β φιλεῖ. α Πρᾶξαι δ' ὁ Καιρὸς καιρὸν οὐ φέρει-β φέρει. α Τὺ τοίνυν αυτᾷ λέξον ὡς ἐρῶ.β ἐρῶ. α Καὶ πίστιν ἀυτᾷ κερμάτων τὺ δός.β τὸ δός. α Αχώ, τί λοιπὸν, ἢ πόθε τυχεῖν ;—β τυχεῖν. Echo! I love, advise me somewhat :-What?

Does Cloe's heart incline to love?-To love, &c.

Martial ridicules the Latin authors of his time for this false wit, and promises that none shall be found in his writings. The early French poets have fallen into this puerility. Joachim de Bellay has an Echo of this kind, a few lines of which I will transcribe :

Qui est l'auteur de ces maux avenus?-Venus.
Qu'étois-je avant d'entrer en ce passage?-Sage.
Qu'est-ce qu'aimer et se plaindre souvent ?-Vent.
Dis-moi quelle est celle pour qui j'endure?—Dure.
Sent-elle bien la douleur qui me point?-Point.

I thought th' hadst scorn'd to budge a step,
For fear. Quoth Echo, Marry guep.*
Am not I here to take thy part?

Then what has quail'd thy stubborn heart? 5
Have these bones rattled, and this head
So often in thy quarrel bled?

Nor did I ever wince or grudge it,

For thy dear sake. Quoth she, Mum budget.
Think'st thou 'twill not be laid i' th' dish
Thou turn'dst thy back? Quoth Echo, Pish.
To run from those th' hadst overcome
Thus cowardly? Quoth Echo, Mum.
But what a-vengeance makes thee fly
From me too, as thine enemy?
Or, if thou hast no thought of me,
Nor what I have endur'd for thee,
Yet shame and honour might prevail
To keep thee thus from turning tail:

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215

For who would grutch to spend his blood in His honour's cause? Quoth she, a Puddin. 220 This said, his grief to anger turn'd,

Which in his manly stomach burn'd;

Marry guep.] A sort of imprecation of Mary come up, praying the Virgin Mary to help; though some derive it otherwise. See Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, and v. 16 of the Wanton Wife of Bath.

5 Then what has quail'd thy stubborn heart?] Quail, to cause to shrink, or faint; from A. S. cwealm, mors, cwellan, occidere. A qualm, deliquium animi, brevior mors. The word is frequently used in ancient songs and ballads.

6

Mum budget.] A term denoting silence.

[I come to her in white, and cry mum; and she cries, budget; and by that we know one another.-Merry Wives, Act v. sc. 2.]

Thirst of revenge, and wrath, in place
Of sorrow, now began to blaze.

He vow'd the authors of his woe

Should equal vengeance undergo;

And with their bones and flesh pay dear
For what he suffer'd and his bear.
This b'ing resolv'd, with equal speed
And rage, he hasted to proceed

To action straight, and giving o'er
To search for bruin any more,
He went in quest of Hudibras,
To find him out, where'er he was:
And if he were above ground, vow'd
He'd ferret him, lurk where he wou'd.
But scarce had he a furlong on

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235

Whom furious Orsin thus bespoke:

Shall we, quoth he, thus basely brook
The vile affront that paltry ass,
And feeble scoundrel, Hudibras,
With that more paltry ragamuffin,
Ralpho, with vapouring and huffing,

250

Have put upon us, like tame cattle,
As if th' had routed us in battle?
For my part, it shall ne'er be said
I for the washing gave my head:7
Nor did I turn my back for fear
Of them, but losing of my bear,
Which now I'm like to undergo;

For whether these fell wounds, or no,
He has receiv'd in fight, are mortal,
Is more than all my skill can foretel;
Nor do I know what is become
Of him, more than the Pope of Rome.
But if I can but find them out
That caus'd it, as I shall no doubt,
Where'er th' in hugger-mugger lurk,'
I'll make them rue their handiwork,

7 For my part, it shall ne'er be said

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265

I for the washing gave my head:] That is, behaved cowardly, or surrendered at discretion; jeering obliquely perhaps at the anabaptistical notions of Ralpho.-Hooker, or Vowler, in his description of Exeter, written about 1584, speaking of the parson of St. Thomas, who was hanged during the siege, says, " he was a stout man, who "would not give his head for the polling, nor his beard for the "washing." Grey gives an apt quotation from Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Act iv.

1st Citizen. It holds, he dies this morning.

2d Citizen. Then happy man be his fortune.

1st Citizen. And so am I and forty more good fellows, that will

not give their heads for the washing.

8 Nor do I know what is become

Of him, more than the Pope of Rome.] This common saying is

a sneer at the Pope's infallibility.

[

in hugger-mugger lurk,] In secrecy or concealment.

and we have done but greenly

In hugger-mugger to inter him.

Hamlet, iv. 5.]

And wish that they had rather dar'd
To pull the devil by the beard.o

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Quoth Cerdon, noble Orsin, th' hast Great reason to do as thou say'st,

And so has ev'ry body here,

As well as thou hast, or thy bear:
Others may do as they see good;
But if this twig be made of wood
That will hold tack, I'll make the fur
Fly 'bout the ears of that old cur,
And th' other mongrel vermin, Ralph,
That brav'd us all in his behalf.
Thy bear is safe, and out of peril,

Tho' lugg'd indeed, and wounded very ill;
Myself and Trulla made a shift

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280

To help him out at a dead lift;

And having brought him bravely off,

285

Have left him where he's safe enough :

There let him rest; for if we stay,

The slaves may hap to get away.

This said, they all engag'd to join

Their forces in the same design,

And forthwith put themselves, in search
Of Hudibras, upon their march :

Where leave we them awhile, to tell

What the victorious Knight befell;

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• To pull the devil by the beard.] A proverbial expression used for any bold or daring enterprise: so we say, To take a lion by the beard. The Spaniards deemed it an unpardonable affront to be pulled by the beard.