160 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



By apostolic blows and knocks ; 

 Call fire and sword and desolation 

 A godly, thorough reformation, 

 Which always must be carried on, 

 And still be doing, never done : 

 As if religion were intended 

 Tor nothing else but to be mended. 

 A sect whose chief devotion lies 

 In odd perverse antipathies ; 

 In falling out with that or this, 

 Ami finding somewhat still amiss ; 

 More peevish, cross, and splenetic 

 Thau dog- distract or monkey sick ; 

 That with more zeal keep holyday 

 The wrong than others the right 



way ; 

 Compound for sins they are 



inclined to 

 By damning those they have no 



mind to ; 



Still so perverse and opposite, 

 As if they worshipped God for 



spite. 

 The selfsame thing they will abhor 



One way, and long another for. 



Freewill they one way disavow, 



Another nothing else allow 



All piety consists therein 



In them, in other men all sin. 



Rather than fail, they will decry 



That which they love most 



tenderly ; 

 Quarrel with minced pies, and 



disparage 

 Their best and dearest friend, 



plum porridge ; 



Fat pig and goose itself oppose, 

 And blaspheme custard through 



the nose. 



The apostles of this fierce religion, 

 Like Mahomet's, were ass and 



widgeon ; 

 To whom our knight by fast 



instinct 



Of wit and temper was so linked, 

 As if hypocrisy and nonsense 

 Had got the advowson of his 



conscience." 



Not less sarcasm and contempt are displayed in describing 

 the external appearance and equipments of Hudibras ; his 

 tawny beard, which he had vowed not to cut till the monarchy 

 should fall, and which is accordingly compared, in an in- 

 tensely humorous passage, to the " supplemental noses " which 

 " learned Taliacotius " cut from the flesh of one person and 

 affixed to the face of another, and which lived as long as 

 and died with him from whom they were cut ; his clumsy, un- 

 wieldy figure ; his loose breeches crammed with stores of pro- 

 visions, and so frequently robbed by rats and mice ; his rusty 

 sword, dagger, and pistols; and hia steed, no less ungainly 

 than its master 



" Sturdy, large, and tall, with mouth of nieal and eye of wall." 



Less elaborate but not less pointed and humorous is the 

 portrait of Ralph, the squire, and his qualities of mind and 

 body 



" His knowledge was not far j Which some call gifts, and some 



behind new light ; 



The knight's, but of another kind, A liberal art, that costs no pains 



And he another way came by it, Of study, industry, or brains." 



Ralph is a tailor by trade, whose chief gift is that religions 

 "new light" already mentioned, and a supposed profound 

 skill in astrology and other occult sciences. He could 



" Feel the pulses of the stars 

 To find out agues, coughs, catarrhs ; 

 And tell what crisis does divine 



The adventures, base, cowardly, and ridiculous, through 

 which this pair of worthies are led by the author, are quite in 

 keeping with their character. Their first attempt is to put 

 down a bear-baiting at Brentford, and bring the offenders to 

 justice, the whole being, of course, intended to display in a 

 ludicrous light the Puritans' aversion to this and all other 

 public amusements. The leaders of the party opposed to the 

 knight Crowdero, a wooden-legged fiddler ; Orsin, the bear 

 leader ; the bear himself ; Talgol, a butcher, " mortal foe to 

 cows;" Magnano, a tinker ; Trulla, "a bold virago stout and 

 tall ; " Cerdon, a cobbler ; and Colon, an ostler and the 

 various incidents of the combat are all described with mock- 

 heroic dignity. At last the first fight ends in the seeming 

 triumph of the knight and squire, who carry off the wooden- 

 legged fiddler to 



The rot in sheep and mange in 

 swine." 



" An ancient castle that com- 

 mands 

 The adjacent parts. In all the 



fabric 

 STou shall not see one stone, nor a 



brick ; 



But all of wood, by powerful spell 

 Of magic made impregnable. 

 There's neither iron bar nor 



grate, 



Portcullis, chain, nor bolt, iior gate, 

 And yet men durance there abide 

 In dungeon scarce three inches 

 wide; 



AVith roof so low that under it 

 They never stand, but lie or sit ; 

 And yet so foul, that whoso is in 

 Is to the middle fast in prison ; 

 In circle magical confined, 

 With walls of subtle air and wind, 

 Which none are able to break 



thorough 

 Until they're freed by head of 



borough. 

 Thither arrived, the adventurous 



knight 

 And bold squire from their steeds 



alight 



At the outward wall, near which 



there stands 

 A bastile, built to imprison 



hands ; 

 By strange enchantment made to 



fetter 

 The lesser part, and free the 



greater ; 

 For though the body may pass . 



through 



The hands in grate are fust enough. 



They ope the trap-door gate, 

 And let Crowdero down thereat; 

 Crowdero making doleful face, 

 Like hermit poor in pensive place ; 

 To dungeon they the wretch 



commit, 

 And the survivor of his feet." 



This dungeon is the parish stocks, in which they leave their 

 vanquished enemy. But their triumph is short. The scattered 

 foes rally, the fight is renewed, and at last Hudibras, overthrown 

 by the " virago stout and tall," and Ralph, his squire, are led 

 away, and placed in the same stocks in which the fiddler had 

 lain before. There the conclusion of the first part leaves them 

 consoling themselves for their bruises and disgrace by a ludicrous 

 controversy upon points of doctrine. 



We have spoken in some detail of the story of the first part 

 of the poem, in the hope that such an introduction may be found 

 useful by the student who wishes to make himself acquainted 

 with "Hudibras." The latter parts of the poem are, perhaps, not 

 quite on a level with the first, but they fall very little short of it. 

 The knight's adventures with the lady of whom he is enamoured, 

 with the conjuror Sidrophel, and the other incidents of the 

 second and third parts, are supremely humorous, and attain to 

 the full Butler's object of rendering Hudibras and his squire 

 contemptible, and give ample scope for the poet's learning and 

 imagination. We cannot examine these latter parts with any 

 minuteness. A very few extracts are all for which we can find 

 space. The passages which we select require no explanation or 

 introduction to render their meaning clear : 



" Our brethren of New England use 

 Choice malefactors to excuse 

 And hang the guiltless in their 



stead, 

 Of whom the churches have less 



need ; 



As lately it happened, in a town 

 There lived a cobbler, and but one, 

 That out of doctrine could cut use, 

 And mend men's lives as weli as 



shoes. 



This precious brother having slain, 

 In time of peace, an Indian, 

 Not out of rcalice, but mere zeal, 

 Because he was an infidel, 

 The mighty Tottipottymoy 

 Sent to our elders an envoy, 

 Complaining, sorely, of the breach 

 Of league held forth by brother 



Patch 



Against the articles in force 

 Between both churches, his and 



ours ; 

 For which he craved the saints to 



render 

 Into his hands, or hang the 



offender. 



But they maturely having weighed 

 They had no more but him o' the 



trade 

 (A man that served them in a 



double 



Capacity, to teach and cobble), 

 Resolved to spare him ; yet to do 

 The Indian, Hoghgan Moghgan, 



too, 

 Impartial justice, in his stead did 



Hang an old weaver that was bed- 

 rid." 



" Doubtless the pleasure is as 



great 



Of being cheated as to cheat ; 

 As lookers-on feel most delight 

 That least perceive a juggler's 



sleight ; 



And still the less they understand 

 The more they admire his sleight 



of hand. 

 Some with a noise and greasy 



light 

 Are snapped, as men catch larks 



by night ; 

 Ensnared and hampered by the 



soul, 



As nooses by their legs cntch fowl ; 

 Some with a medicine and receipt 

 Are drawn to nibble at the bait ; 

 And, though it be a two-foot trout, 

 Are with a single hair pulled out. 

 Others believe no voice to an 



organ 



So sweet as lawyer's in his bar- 

 gown, 



Until, with subtle cobweb cheats, 

 They're catched in knotted law. 



like nets ; 

 In which, when once they are 



embrangled, 

 The more they stir, the more 



they're tangled ; 



And while their purses can dispute, 

 There's no end of the immortal 



suit." 



We have spoken already of the great and immediate popularity 

 of " Hudibras." There is one result of that popularity which 

 ought not to pass unnoticed. Pew things are more striking 

 than the completeness with which, down to a few years ago, one 

 particular view of the Puritan character maintained undisputed 

 predominance in English literature, and that view an exaggera- 

 tion and caricature of one side only of their many-sided character. 

 The view of which we speak is exactly that of " Hudibras ; " 

 and we believe that Butler, by his great satire, contributed 

 more than any other man to stamp upon English literature that 

 impression which only in the present generation lias been com- 

 pletely removed. 



