The difference was fo fmall, his brain
Outweigh'd his rage but half a grain';
Which made fome take him for a tool

That knaves do work with, call'd a Fool.
For 't has been held by many, that
A's Montaigne, playing with his cat,
Complains the thought him but an ass,
Much more fhe would Sir Hudibras
(For that 's the name our valiant Knight
To all his challenges did write) :

35

40

Being rich in both, he never scanted
His bounty unto fuch as wanted;

55

But

Ver. 55, 56.] This is the property of a pedantic coxcomb, who prates moft learnedly amongst illiterate perfons, and makes a mighty pother about books and languages there, where he is fure to be admired, though not understood.

For Hebrew roots, although they 're found
To flourish moft in barren ground,

He had fuch plenty, as fuffic'd
To make fome think him circumcis'd;
And truly fo he was, perhaps,
Not as a profelyte, but for claps.
He was in logic a great critic,
Profoundly skill'd in analytic;
He could diftinguish, and divide

A hair 'twixt fouth and fouth-weft fide;
On either which he would difpute,

Confute, change hands, and still confute:
He'd undertake to prove, by force

Of argument, a man 's no horse;

He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl,

60

6.5

70

And that a lord may be an owl;

A calf

Ver. 62.J Here is an alteration without any amendment; for the following lines,

And truly so he was, perhaps,

Not as a profelyte, but for claps,

are thus changed in the editions of 1674, 1684, 1689, 1694, 1700,

And truly fo perhaps he was,

'Tis many a pious Chriftian's cafe.

Reftored in the edition of 1704.

A calf an alderman, a goofe a justice,

And rooks Committee-men and Trustees.

He'd run in debt by difputation,

And pay with ratiocination :

All this by fyllogifm, true

In mood and figure, he would do.
For rhetoric, he could not ope

His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he happen'd to break off
I' th' middle of his fpeech, or cough,
H' had hard words ready to fhew why,
And tell what rules he did it by ;
Elfe when with greatest art he spoke,

You'd think he talk'd like other folk;

75

85

For

Ver. 75.] Such was Alderman Pennington, who fent a perfon to Newgate for finging (what he called) a malignant pfalm.

Ibid.-] Lord Clarendon obferves, "That after the "declaration of No more Addreffes to the King, they "who were not above the condition of ordinary con"ftables fix or seven years before, were now the juftices of the peace." Dr. Bruno Ryves informs us, That the "town of Chelmsford in Effex was governed, "at the beginning of the Rebellion, by a tinker, two "coblers, two tailors, and two pedlars."

Ver. 76.] In the feveral counties, especially the Affociated ones (Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Suflex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire) which fided with the Parliament, Committees were erected of fuch men as were for the Good Caufe, as they called it, who had authority, from the members of the two Houses at Westminster, to fine and imprison whom they pleased.

For all a rhetorician's rules

Teach nothing but to name his tools.

But, when he pleas'd to fhow 't, his speech,
In loftiness of found, was rich;

A Babylonish dialect,

Which learned pedants much affect;
It was a party-colour'd dress

Of patch'd and py-ball'd languages;
'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin,
Like fuftian heretofore on fattin;
It had an old promiscuous tone,

As if h' had talk'd three parts in one;

Which made fome think, when he did gabble,
Th' had heard three labourers of Babel,

Or Cerberus himself pronounce

A leash of languages at once.

This he as volubly would vent,

As if his stock would ne'er be spent:
And truly, to fupport that charge,
He had fupplies as vast and large;
For he could coin or counterfeit
New words, with little or no wit;
Words fo debas'd and hard, no stone
Was hard enough to touch them on;

110

And

Ver. 109.] The Prefbyterians coined a great number, fuch as Out-goings, Carryings-on, Nothingness, Workings-ont, Gofpel-waking-times, &c. which we fhall meet with hereafter, in the speeches of the Knight and Squire, and others, in this Poem; for which they are bantered by Sir John Birkenhead.

And when with hafty noise he spoke 'em,

The ignorant for current took 'em ;
That had the orator, who once

Did fill his mouth with pebble-stones

When he harangued, but known his phrase,
He would have us'd no other ways.

In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater ;
For he, by geometric fcale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Refolve by fines and tangents straight
If bread or butter wanted weight;
And wifely tell what hour o' th' day
The clock does strike, by Algebra.
Befide, he was a fhrewd philofopher,
And had read every text and glofs over;
Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath,
He understood b' implicit faith:

Ver. 115. This and the three following lines not in the two first editions of 1664, but added in the edit. 1674. Demofthenes is here meant, who had a defect in his speech.

and

Ver. 120.] An eminent Danish mathematician; William Lilly, the famous aftrologer ofthofe times. Ver. 129.] This and the following line not in the two first editions of 1664, and first inferted in that of 1674.