To active trot one side of's horse,

The other wou'd not hang an arse.

A Squire he had whose name was Ralph,
That in th' adventure went his half,
Tho' writers, for more stately tone,

455

Do call him Ralpho, 'tis all one;

460

And when we can with metre safe,

We'll call him so; if not, plain Ralph;

(For rhyme the rudder is of verses,

With which, like ships, they steer their courses)

From him descended cross-legg'd knights,
Fam'd for their faith and warlike fights

Against the bloody Cannibal,

Whom they destroy'd both great and small.

v. 457. Sir Roger L'Estrange (Key to Hudibras) says, this famous Squire was one Isaac Robinson, azealous butcher in Moorfields, who was always contriving some new querpo cut in church government: but, in a Key at the end of a burlesque poem of Mr. Butler's, 1706, in folio, p. 12. 'tis observed, "That "Hudibras's Squire was one Pemble a tailor, and 86 one of the Committee of Sequestrators."

This sturdy Squire he had as well
As the bold Trojan knight, seen hell,
Not with a counterfeited pass
Of golden bough, but true gold-lace:
His knowledge was not far behind

475

The Knight's, but of another kind,

And he another way came by't;

Some call it Gifts, and some New-light;
A lib'ral art, that costs no pains
Of study, industry, or brains.
His wit was sent him for a token,

But in the carriage crack'd and broken;
Like commendation nine-pence crookt
With---To and from my love---it lookt.
He ne'er consider'd it, as loath
To look a gift-horse in the mouth,
And very wisely wou'd lay forth
No more upon it than 'twas worth;

483

485

490

v. 485. His wits were sent him.] In all editions to 1704 inclusive.

v.487, 488. Until the year 1696, when all money, not milled, was called in, a ninepenny piece of silver was as common as sixpences or shillings, and these nine-pences were usually bent as sixpences commonly are now, which bending was called, To my love, and From my love; and such nine-pences the ordinary fellows gave or sent to their sweethearts as tokens of

But as he got it freely, so

He spent it frank and freely too:

For saints themselves will sometimes be,

495

Of gifts that cost them nothing, free.

By means of this, with hem and cough,
Prolongers to enlighten'd stuff,

He could deep mysteries unriddle,
As easily as thread a needle:

For as of vagabonds we say,

500

That they are ne'er beside their way,

Whate'er men speak by this new light,
Still they are sure to be i'th' right.

'Tis a dark-lantern of the Spirit,

505

Which none see by but those that bear it;

To dive, like wild-fowl, for salvation,

And speaks, thro' hollow empty soul,
As thro' a trunk, or whisp'ring hole,
Such language as no mortal ear
But spirit'al eaves-droppers can hear:
So Phoebus, or some friendly Muse,
Into small poets song infuse,
Which they at second-hand rehearse,
Thro' reed or bagpipe, verse for verse.
Thus Ralph became infallible

As three or four-legg'd oracle,

520

525

As far as Adam's first green breeches;
Deep-sighted in intelligences,

Ideas, atoms, influences;

When they cry Rope, and Walk, Knave, Walk,
He'd extract numbers out of matter,
And keep them in a glass, like water,

Of sov'reign pow'r to make men wise;

555

For, dropt in blear thick-sighted eyes,

They'd make them see in darkest night,
Like owls, tho' purblind in the light.
By help of these (as he profest)
He had First Matter seen undrest:
He took her naked, all alone,
Before one rag of form was on.
The Chaos too, he had descry'd,

And seen quite through, or else he ly'd;
Not that of Pasteboard, which men shew
For groats, at fair of Barthol'mew;
But its great grandsire, first o'th' name,
Whence that and Reformation came,
Both cousin-germans, and right able
T'inveigle and draw in the rabble:
But Reformation was, some say,
O'th' younger house to Puppet-play.

560

565

570