But I shall take a fit occasion

Tevince thee by ratiocination,

Some other time, in place more proper

Than this w' are in: therefore let's stop here, And rest our weary'd bones awhile,

Already tir'd with other toil.

PART II. CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Knight being clapp'd by th' heels in prison,
The last unhappy expedition,'

Love brings his action on the case,"

And lays it upon Hudibras.

How he receives the lady's visit,
And cunningly solicits his suit,
Which she defers; yet, on parole,

Redeems him from th' enchanted hole.

The knight being clapp'd by th' heels in prison,

The last unhappy expedition,] In the author's corrected copy, printed 1674, the lines stand thus; but in the edition printed ten years before, we read:

The knight, by damnable magician,

Being cast illegally in prison.

In the edition of 1704 the old reading was restored, but we have in general used the author's corrected copy.

'Love brings his action on the case,] We may observe how justly Mr. Butler, who was an able lawyer, applies all law terms.—An action on the case, is a general action given for redress of wrongs and injuries, done without force, and by law not provided against, in order to have satisfaction for damages.-The author informs us, in his own note, at the beginning of this canto, that he had the fourth Æneis of Virgil in view, which passes from the tumults of war and the fatigues of a dangerous voyage, to the tender subject of love. The French translator has divided the poem into nine cantos, and not into parts: but, as the poet published his work at three different times, and in his corrected copy continued the division into parts, it is taking too great a liberty for any commentator to alter that arrangement; especially as he might do it, as before observed, in imitation of Spenser, and the Italian and Spanish poets Tasso, Ariosto, Alonso de Ercilla, &c. &c.

HUDIBRAS.

CANTO I.

But now, t' observe romantique method,
Let rusty steel awhile be sheathed;
And all those harsh and rugged sounds'
Of bastinadoes, cuts, and wounds,
Exchang'd to love's more gentle style,
To let our reader breathe awhile:
In which, that we may be as brief as
Is possible, by way of preface.

Is't not enough to make one strange,

5

That some men's fancies should ne'er change, 10
But make all people do and say

The same things still the self-same way?3
Some writers make all ladies purloin'd,
And knights pursuing like a whirlwind:
Others make all their knights, in fits
Of jealousy, to lose their wits;

And all those harsh and rugged sounds] Shakspeare says,
"Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
"Our dreadful marches to delightful measures."

15

Richard III. Act i. sc. 1.

* Is't not enough to make one strange,] That is, to make one wonder: strange, here, is an adjective; when a man sees a new or unexpected object, he is said to be strange to it.

But make all people do and say

The same things still the self-same way?] Few men have genius enough to vary their style; both poets and painters are very apt to be mannerists.