With lackies, grooms, valets, and pages,
In fit and proper equipages;

Of whom some torches bore, some links,
Before the proud virago-minx,

That was both madam and a don, 8
Like Nero's Sporus," or pope Joan;

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Herbert's Henry VIII. Staffier, from estaffete, a courier or express. [Mr. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 506, says: "Some errors have crept into the remarks on this word which re"quire correction. It is by no means, as Hanmer had conceived, a 66 corruption from the French huissier. He was apparently misled by the resemblance which the office of a whiffler bore in modern "times to that of an usher. The term is undoubtedly borrowed "from whiffle, another name for a fife or small flute; for whifflers "were originally those who preceded armies or processions as fifers

or pipers. Representations of them occur among the prints of "the magnificent triumph of Maximilian I. In a note on Othello, "Act iii. sc. iii. Mr. Warton had supposed that whiffler came from "what he calls the old French viffleur;' but it is presumed that "that language does not supply any such word, and that the use of "it in the quotation from Rymer's fœdera is nothing more than a " vitiated orthography. In process of time the term whiffler, which "had always been used in the sense of a fifer, came to signify any person who went before in a procession. Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1617, defines him to be a club or staff-bearer."

Mr. Douce has not afforded us an instance of whiffler used as a fifer. Warton carries up the use of the word as an huissier to 1554, and certainly Shakspeare could have had no idea of its piping meaning when he wrote:

"Behold, the English beach

"Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys,

"Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea,
"Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,

"Seems to prepare his way :

The whifflers who now attend the London companies in processions are freemen carrying staves.]

• That was both madam and a don,] A mistress and a master.

• Like Nero's Sporus,-] See Suetonius, in the life of Nero.

And at fit periods the whole rout
Set up their throats with clam'rous shout.
The knight transported, and the squire,
Put up their weapons, and their ire;
And Hudibras, who us'd to ponder
On such sights with judicious wonder,
Could hold no longer, to impart
His animadversions, for his heart.
Quoth he, In all my life till now,

I ne'er saw so profane a show;
It is a paganish invention,

Which heathen writers often mention;
And he, who made it, had read Goodwin,
I warrant him, and understood him :
With all the Grecian Speeds and Stows,'
That best describe those ancient shows;
And has observ'd all fit decorums

We find describ'd by old historians:"

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665

670

1 With all the Grecian Speeds and Stows,] Speed and Stowe wrote chronicles or annals of England, and are well known English antiquaries. By Grecian Speeds and Stows, he means, any ancient authors who have explained the antiquities and customs of Greece: the titles of such books were often, rà πarρià, of such a district or city. Thus Dicaearchus wrote a book entitled, περὶ τοῦ τῆς ̔Ελλάδος Biov, wherein he gave the description of Greece, and of the laws and customs of the Grecians: our poet likewise might allude to Pausanias.

2 And has observ'd all fit decorums

We find described by old historians:] The reader will, perhaps, think this an awkward rhyme; but the very ingenious and accurate critic, Dr. Loveday, to whom, as well as to his learned father, I cannot too often repeat my acknowledgements, observes in a letter with which he honoured me, that in English, to a vulgar ear, unac

TO NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATICES

For, as the Roman conqueror,

That put an end to foreign war,

Ent'ring the town in triumph for it,

Bore a slave with him in his chariot :3

So this insulting female brave

675

Carries behind her here a slave:

And as the ancients long ago,

When they in field defy'd the foe,
Hung out their mantles della guerre,
So her proud standard-bearer here,
Waves on his spear, in dreadful manner,
A Tyrian petticoat for banner.

Next links and torches, heretofore

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Still borne before the emperor:
And, as in antique triumphs, eggs

Were borne for mystical intrigues ;5

690

quainted with critical disquisitions on sounds, m and n sound alike. So the old sayings, among the common people taken for rhyme :

A stitch in time

Saves nine.

Tread on a worm,

And it will turn.

Frequent instances of the propriety of this remark occur in Hudibras; for example: men and them, exempt and innocent.

Bore a slave with him in his chariot ;]

curru servus portatur eodem.

Juv. Sat. x. 42.

Hung out their mantles della guerre,] Tunica coccinea solebat pridie quam dimicandum esset supra prætorium poni, quasi admonitio et indicium futuræ pugnæ. Lipsius in Tacit.

And, as in antique triumphs, eggs

Were borne for mystical intrigues;] In the orgies of Bacchus, and the games of Ceres, eggs were carried, and had a mystical import. See Banier, vol. i. b. ii. c. 5. and Rosinus, lib. v. c. 14.