And such you are: nor is 't your person
My stomach's set so sharp and fierce on;
But 'tis your better part, your riches,
That my enamour'd heart bewitches:
Let me your fortune but possess,

And settle your person how you please;
Or make it o'er in trust to the devil,
You'll find me reasonable and civil.

Quoth she, I like this plainness better
Than false mock-passion, speech or letter,
Or any feat of qualm or swooning,
But hanging of yourself, or drowning;
Your only way with me to break
Your mind, is breaking of your neck :
For as when merchants break, o'erthrown
Like nine-pins, they strike others down;
So that wou'd break my heart; which done,
My tempting fortune is your own.
These are but trifles; ev'ry lover

Will damn himself over and over,
And greater matters undertake
For a less worthy mistress' sake:
Yet th' are the only ways to prove
Th' unfeign'd realities of love;

475

480

485

490

495

For he that hangs, or beats out's brains,
The devil's in him if he feigns.

Quoth Hudibras, This way 's too rough
For mere experiment and proof;
It is no jesting, trivial matter,

To swing i' th' air, or plunge in water,

500

And, like a water-witch, try love;
That's to destroy, and not to prove :
As if a man should be dissected,
To find what part is disaffected:
Your better way is to make over,
In trust, your fortune to your lover;
Trust is a trial; if it break,
"Tis not so desp'rate as a neck:

Beside, th' experiment's more certain,
Men venture necks to gain a fortune;
The soldier does it every day,
Eight to the week, for six-pence pay:
Your pettifoggers damn their souls,
To share with knaves in cheating fools:
And merchants, vent'ring through the main,
Slight pirates, rocks, and horns for gain.

505

510

515

And, like a water-witch, try love;] It was usual, when an old woman was suspected of witchcraft, to throw her into the water. If she swam, she was judged guilty; if she sunk, she preserved her character, and only lost her life.

• Beside, th' experiment's more certain,

Men venture necks to gain a fortune ;
The soldier does it every day,

Eight to the week, for six-pence pay ;] No comparison can be made between the evidence arising from each experiment; for as to venturing necks, it proves no great matter; it is done every day by the soldier, pettifogger, and merchant. If the soldier has only sixpence a day, and one day's pay is reserved weekly for stoppages, he may be said to make eight days to the week; adding that to the account of labour which is deducted from his pay. Percennius, the mutinous soldier in Tacitus, seems to have been sensible of some such hardship-Denis in diem assibus animam et corpus æstimari; hinc vestem, arma, tentoria; hinc sævitiam centurionum, et vacationes munerum redimi. Annal. i. 17.

This is the way I advise you to,

Trust me, and see what I will do.

Quoth she, I should be loth to run
Myself all th' hazard, and you none;
Which must be done, unless some deed
Of your's aforesaid do precede;
Give but yourself one gentle swing,
For trial, and I'll cut the string:
Or give that rev'rend head a maul,
Or two, or three, against a wall;
To shew you are a man of mettle,
And I'll engage myself to settle.

Quoth he, My head's not made of brass,

As Friar Bacon's noddle was;

Nor, like the Indian's skull, so tough,
That, authors say, 'twas musket-proof:

"Give but yourself one gentle swing,]

Ερωτα παύει λιμός, ἐι δὲ μὴ, χρόνος :
Ἐὰν δὲ μὴ δε ταῦτα τὴν φλόγα σβέση,
Θεραπεία σοι το λοιπὸν ἠρτησθω βρόχος.

Anthol. Gr. 23. ed. Ald.

520

525

530

In Diogenes Laertius cum notis Meibom. p. 356. it is thus printed :

Ερωτα παύει λιμός ἐι δὲ μὴ χρόνος,

̓Εὰν δὲ τούτοις μὴ δύνῃ χρῆσθαι, βρόχος.

See lines 485 and also 645 of this canto, where the word Auóc is turned into dry diet.

Nor, like the Indian's skull, so tough

That, authors say, 'twas musket-proof:] "Blockheads and logger"heads are in request in Brazil, and helmets are of little use, every one having an artificialized natural morion of his head: for the "Brasilians heads, some of them are as hard as the wood that ་ grows in their country, for they cannot be broken, and they have "them so hard, that our's, in comparison of their's, are like a pom“pion, and when they would injure any white man, they call him

As it had need to be to enter,

As yet, on any new adventure;

You see what bangs it has endur'd,

That would, before new feats, be cur'd:
But if that's all you
stand upon,

Here, strike me luck, it shall be done.'

Quoth she, The matter's not so far gone
As you suppose, two words t'a bargain;
That may be done, and time enough,
When you have given downright proof:
And yet, 'tis no fantastic pique
I have to love, nor coy dislike;
'Tis no implicit, nice aversion'
T' your conversation, mien, or person:
But, a just fear, lest you should prove
False and perfidious in love;
For if I thought you could be true,
I could love twice as much as you.

535

540

545

550

"soft head." Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, p. 42. and Purchas's Pilgr. fol. vol. iii. p. 993.

• Here, strike me luck, it shall be done.]

Percutere et ferire fœdus.

At the conclusion of treaties a beast was generally sacrificed. When butchers and country people make a bargain, one of the parties holds out in his hand a piece of money, which the other strikes, and the bargain is closed. Callimachus Brunck. i. 464. epig. xiv. 5. τετο δοκώ, &c.

[Y. L. Come strike me luck with earnest, and draw the writings. M. There's a God's penny for thee.

Beaumont and Fletcher.-Scornful Lady, Act ii.] 'Tis no implicit, nice aversion] Implicit here signifies secret, unaccountable, or an aversion conceived from the report of others, See P. i. c. i. v. 130.

Quoth he, My faith as adamantine, As chains of destiny, I'll maintain ; True as Apollo ever spoke,

2

Or oracle from heart of oak ;2
And if you'll give my flame but vent,
Now in close hugger-mugger pent,
And shine upon me but benignly,
With that one, and that other pigsney,
The sun and day shall sooner part,
Than love, or you, shake off my heart:
The sun that shall no more dispense
His own, but your bright influence;
I'll carve your name on barks of trees,*
With true love-knots, and flourishes;

555

560

565

⚫ or oracle from heart of oak;] Jupiter's oracle in Epirus, near the city of Dodona, Ubi nemus erat Jovi sacrum, querneum totum, in quo Jovis Dodonæi templum fuisse narratur.

• And shine upon me but benignly,

With that one, and that other pigsney,] Pigsney is a term of blandishment, from the Anglo-Saxon, or Danish, piga, a pretty girl, or the eyes of a pretty lass: thus in Pembroke's Arcadia, Dametas says to his wife," Miso, mine own pigsnie." To love one's mistress more than one's eyes, is a phrase used by all nations: thus Moschus in Greek, Catullus in Latin; Spenser, in his Fairy Queen :

her eyes, sweet smiling in delight,

Moystened their fiery beams, with which she thrill'd
Frail hearts, yet quenched not; like starry light,

Which sparkling on the silent waves, does seem more bright. Thus the Italian poets, Tasso and Ariosto. Tyrwhitt says, in a note on Chaucer's Miller's Tale, v. 3268. " the Romans used oculus as a term of endearment; and perhaps piggesnie, in burlesque poetry, means ocellus porci, the eyes of a pig being remarkably small."

♦ I'll carve your name on barks of trees,] See Don Quixote, vol. i. ch. 4. and vol. iv. ch. 73.