This Ralpho knew, and therefore took Thus was th' accomplish'd Squire endued With gifts and knowledge perilous fhrewd: Never did trufty fquire with knight, 625 Or knight with squire, e'er jump more right. Their arms and equipage did fit, As well as virtues, parts, and wit: Their valours, too, were of a rate, And out they fally'd at the gate. 639. Few miles on horfeback had they jogged? For they a fad adventure met, Of which anon we mean to treat : 635 Atchievements fo refolv'd and bold, Thou that with ale, or viler liquors, 640 645 Didft inspire Withers, Pryn, and Vickars,, Of Nature, and their ftars, to write; And cross-grain'd works of modern wits) D 650 With With vanity, opinion, want, Affift me but this once, I' mplore, 655 660 When w' are, or are not understood. 670 To this town people did repair On days of market or of fair, And Ver. 665.] Brentford, which is eight miles weft from London, is here probably meant, as may be gathered from Part II. Cant. iii. Ver. 995, &c. where he tells the Knight what befel him there: And though you overcame the Bear, For authors do affirm it came That at the chain's end wheels about, For after folemn proclamation In the bear's name (as is the fashion 685 690 According Ver. 678.] This game is ufhered into the Poem with more folemnity than thofe celebrated ones in Homer and Virgil. Ás the Poem is only adorned with this game, and the Riding Skimmington, fo it was incumbent on the Poet to be very particular and full in the defcription: and may we not venture to affirm, they are exactly suitable to the nature of these adventures and, confequently, to a Briton, preferable to thofe in Homer or Virgil ? Ver. 689, 690.] Alluding to the bull-running at Tutbury in Staffordshire; where folemn proclamation was made by the Steward, before the bull was turned D 2 loofe; According to the law of arms, T'expose themselves to vain jeopardy, 695 Although the bear gain much, being bound 700 When he's engag'd, and takes no notice, But lets them know, at their own coft, This to prevent, and other harms, 705 Which always wait on feats of arms (For in the hurry of a fray 'Tis hard to keep out of harm's way); Thither the Knight his course did steer, To keep the peace 'twixt Dog and Bear, 710 As he believ'd h' was bound to do Than loofe; "That all manner of perfons give way to the bull, none being to come near him by forty foot, any way to hinder the minstrels, but to attend his or "their own fafety, every one at his peril." See Dr. Plot's Staffordshire. Ver. 714.] This fpeech is fet down, as it was deli Quantum in nobis, have thought good And vered by the Knight, in his own words: but fince it is below the gravity of Heroical poetry to admit of humour, but all men are obliged to fpeak wifely alike, and too much of so extravagant a folly would become tedious and impertinent, the reft of his harangues have only his fenfe expreffed in other words, unless in fome few places, where his own words could not be fo well avoided. Ver. 715.] Had that remarkable motion in the Houfe of Commons taken place, the Constables might have vied with Sir Hudibras for an equality at least ; "That it was neceffary for the House of Commons to " have a High Conftable of their own, that will make "no fcruple of laying his Majesty by the heels;" but they proceeded not fo far as to name any body; because Harry Martyn (out of tenderness of confcience in this particular) immediately quafhed the motion, by faying, the power was too great for any man. |