Hudibras | Page 3

person and politics, yet, by the rule of contraries,
one may observe
throughout his whole Poem, that he was most
orthodox, both in his religion and loyalty. And I am the more induced
to believe he wrote it about that time, because he had then the
opportunity to converse with those living characters of rebellion,
nonsense, and hypocrisy, which he so livelily and pathetically exposes
throughout the whole work.
After the restoration of King Charles II. those who were at the helm,
minding money more than merit, our Author found that
verse in
Juvenal to be exactly verified in himself:
Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat
Res angusta domi:


[They do not easily rise whose virtues are held back by the straitened
circumstances of their home]
And being endued with that innate modesty, which rarely finds
promotion in princes' courts. He became Secretary to Richard Earl of
Carbury, Lord President of the Principality of Wales, who made him
Steward of Ludlow-Castle, when the Court there was revived. About
this time he married one Mrs. Herbert, a gentlewoman of a very good
family, but no widow, as the
Oxford Antiquary has reported; she had
a competent fortune, but it was most of it unfortunately lost, by being
put out on ill securities, so that it was of little advantage to him. He is
reported by the Antiquary to have been Secretary to his Grace George
Duke of Buckingham, when he was Chancellor to the
University of
Cambridge; but whether that be true or no, it is certain, the Duke had a
great kindness for him, and was often a benefactor to him. But no man
was a more generous friend to him, than that Mecaenas of all learned
and witty men, Charles Lord Buckhurst, the late Earl of Dorset and
Middlesex, who, being himself an excellent poet, knew how to set a
just value upon the ingenious performances of others, and has often
taken care privately to relieve and supply the necessities of those,
whose modesty would endeavour to conceal them; of which our author
was a signal instance, as several others have been, who are now living.
In fine the integrity of his life, the acuteness of his wit, and easiness of
his conversation, had rendered him most acceptable to all men; yet he
prudently avoided a multiplicity of acquaintance, and wisely chose
such only whom his discerning judgment could distinguish (as Mr.
Cowley expresseth it)
From the great vulgar or the small.
And having thus lived to a good old age, admired by all, though
personally known to few, he departed this life in the year 1680, and was
buried at the charge of his good friend Mr. Longuevil, of the Temple, in
the yard belonging to the church of St. Paul's Covent-garden, at the
west-end of the said yard, on the north side, under the wall of the said
church, and under that wall which parts the yard from the common
highway. And since he
has no monument yet set up for him, give me

leave to borrow his epitaph from that of Michael Drayton, the poet, as
the author of Mr. Cowley's has partly done before me:
And though no monument can claim
To be the treasurer of thy name;

This work, which ne'er will die, shall be
An everlasting monument
to thee.
PART I
CANTO I
THE ARGUMENT

Sir Hudibras his passing worth,
The manner how he sallied forth;
His arms and equipage are shown;
His horse's virtues, and his own.
Th' adventure of the bear and fiddle
Is sung, but breaks off in the middle.

When civil dudgeon first grew high,
And men fell out they knew
not why?
When hard words, jealousies, and fears,
Set folks together
by the ears,
And made them fight, like mad or drunk, 5 For Dame
Religion, as for punk;
Whose honesty they all durst swear for,

Though not a man of them knew wherefore:
When Gospel-Trumpeter,
surrounded
With long-ear'd rout, to battle sounded, 10 And pulpit,
drum ecclesiastick,
Was beat with fist, instead of a stick;
Then did
Sir Knight abandon dwelling,
And out he rode a colonelling.
A
wight he was, whose very sight wou'd 15 Entitle him Mirror of
Knighthood;
That never bent his stubborn knee
To any thing but
Chivalry;
Nor put up blow, but that which laid
Right worshipful on
shoulder-blade; 20 Chief of domestic knights and errant,
Either for
cartel or for warrant;
Great on the bench, great in the saddle,
That
could as well bind o'er, as swaddle;
Mighty he was at both of

these, 25 And styl'd of war, as well as peace.
(So some rats, of
amphibious nature,
Are either for the land or water).
But here our
authors make a doubt
Whether he were more wise, or stout: 30 Some
hold the one, and some the other;
But howsoe'er they make a pother,

The diff'rence was so small, his brain
Outweigh'd his rage but half
a grain;
Which made some take him for a tool