Eat grots and labyrinths to dwell in
His postic parts without his feeling :
Then how is't possible a kick

210 Should e'er reach that way to the quick?
Quoth she, I grant it is in vain
For one that's bafted to feel pain,
Because the pangs his bones endure
Contribute nothing to the cure;
215 Yet honour hurt, is wont to rage
With pain no med'cine can affuage:
Quoth he, that honour's very squeamish,
That takes a basting for a blemish;
For what's more hon'rable than Scars,

220 Or skin to tatters rent in wars?
Some have been beaten till they know
What wood' a cudgel's of by th' blow:
Some kick'd until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather;

225 And yet have met, after long running,
With some whom they have taught that cunning.
The farthest way about, t'o'ercome,
I'th' end does prove the nearest home;.
By laws of learned duellifts,

230 They that are bruis'd with wood or fifts,
And think one beating may for once
Suffice, are cowards and poltroons :
But if they dare engage t'a fecond,
They're ftout and gallant fellows reckon'd..
Th' old Romans freedom did bestow,.
Our princes worship, with a blow :
King Pyrrhus cur'd his splenetic

235

And testy courtiers with a kick.

as

237 King Pyrrhus, etc.) Pyrrhus king of Epirus, Pliny says, had this occult quality in his toe, Pollicis in dextro pede tatu. Lienosis medebatur, 1. 7. c. 11.

The Negus, when some mighty lord

240 Or potentate's to be restor'd,

And pardon'd for fome great offence,
With which he's willing to dispense;
First has him laid upon his belly,
Then beaten back and fide t' a jelly;

245 That done, he rises, humbly bows,
And gives thanks for the princely blows;
Departs not meanly proud, and boasting
Of his magnificent rib-roafting.
The beaten foldier proves most manful,
250 That, like his sword, endures the anvil;
And justly's held more formidable,
The more his valour's malleable:
But he that fears a bastinado,
Will run away from his own shadow:
255 And though I'm now in durance falt,
By your own party basely caft,
Ranfom, exchange, parole, refus'd,.
And worse than by the enemy us'd;
In close catasta shut, past hope

260 Of wit, or valour, to elope:

As beards, the nearer that they tend
To th' earth, still grow more reverend;
And cannons shoot the higher pitches,
The lower we let down their breeches :

265 I'll make this low dejected state
Advance me to a greater height.

Quoth she, Y'have almost made me in love With that which did my pity move.

259 In close catasta sout, etc.] Catasta is but a pair of stocks in English. But heroical poetry must not admit of any vulgar word (especially of paltry signification;) and therefore some of our modern authors are fain to import foreign words from abroad, that were never before heard of in our language.

Great wits and valours, like great flates,
270 Do sometimes fink with their own weights,
Th' extremes, of glory, and of shame,
Like East and West become the same:
No Indian prince has to his palace
More foll'wers than a thief to th' gallows.

375 But if a beating seem so brave,
What glories must a whipping have?
Such great atchievements cannot fail
To cast salt on a woman's tail;

For if I thought your nat'ral talent
280 Of paffive courage were so gallant,
As you strain hard to have it thought,
I could grow amorous, and dote.
When Hudibras this language heard,
He prick'd up's ears, and stroak'd his beard:

285 Thought he, this is the lucky hour,
Wines work when vines are in the flow'r;
This crifis then I'll set my rest on,
And put her boldly to the question.
Madam, What you would feem to doubt,

290 Shall be to all the world made out ;
How I've been drubb'd, and with what spirit
And magnanimity, I bear it;
And if you doubt it to be true,
I'll take myself down against you :

295 And if I fail in love or troth,
Be you the winner, and take both.
Quoth she, I heard old cunningstagers
Say, fools for arguments use wagers ;
And though I prais'd your valour, yet

300 I do not mean to baulk your wit;
Which if you have, you must needs know
What I have told you before now,

305

And you b' experiment have prov'd,
I cannot love where I'm below'd.

Quoth Hudibras, 'tis a caprich,
Beyond th' infliction of a witch;
So cheats to play with those still aim,
That do not understand the game.
Love in your heart as idly burns

310 As fire in antique Roman urns,
To warn the dead, and vainly light
Those only that see nothing by't.
Have you not pow'r to entertain,
And render love for love again;
315 As no man can draw in his breath
At once, and force out air beneath?
Or do you love yourself fo much,
To bear all rivals else a grutch?
What fate can lay a greater curse
320 Than you upon yourself would force?
For wedlock without love, some say,,
Is but a lock without a key.
It is a kind of rape to marry
One that neglects or cares not for ye :

325 For what does make it ravishment,
But b'ing against the mind's confent?
A rape that is the more inhuman,
For being acted by a woman.
Why are you fair, but to entice us
330 To love you, that you may despise us ?
But though you cannot love, you say,
Out of your own fanatic way,
Why should you not at least allow
Those that love you, to do so too?

335 For as you fly me, and pursue
Love more averse, so I do you;

And am by your own doctrine taught
To practise what you call a fault.

Quoth she, If what you say is true,

340 You must fly me as I do you;
But 'tis not what we do, but say,
In love and preaching, that must sway.
Quoth he, To bid me not to love,
Is to forbid my pulse to move,

345 My beard to grow, my ears to prick up,
Or (when I'm in a fit) to hickup;
Command me to piss out the moon,
And 'twill as easily be done.
Love's pow'r's too great to be withstood

350 By feeble human flesh and blood.
'Twas he that brought upon his knees
The Heft'ring kill-cow Hercules ;
Transform'd his leager-lion's skin
T'a petticoat, and made him spin;
355 Seiz'd on his club, and made it dwindle
T' a feeble distaff, and a spindle.
'Twas he that made emperors gallants
To their own fisters and their aunts;
Set popes and cardinals agog,

360 To play with pages at leap-frog:
'Twas he that gave our fenate purges,
And fluxt the house of many a burgess;
Made those that represent the nation,
Submit, and fuffer amputation;

365 And all the grandees o' th' cabal
Adjourn to tubs, at spring and falt.
He mounted fynod-men, and rode 'em
To Dirty-lane, and little Sodom;
Made 'em curvet, like Spanish jenets,

370 And take the ring at madam