Quoth he, To bid me not to love, Is to forbid my pulse to move, 345 350 Reduc'd his leaguer-lion's skin T'a petticoat, and made him spin : 355 T' a feeble distaff, and a spindle. • Reduc'd his leaguer-lions' skin, T' a petticoat-) Leaguer signifies a siege laid to a town; it seems to be also used for a pitched or standing camp: a leaguer coat is a sort of watch cloak, or coat used by soldiers when they are at a siege, or upon duty. Hudibras here speaks of the lion's skin as Hercules's leaguer, or military habit, his campaign coat. See Skinner's Lexicon; art. Leaguer. Læna, in Latin, is by Ainsworth translated a soldier's leaguer coat. Hercules changed clothes with Omphale. Ovid. Fasti, xi. Cultibus Alciden instruit illa suis. Dat tenues tunicas Gætulo murice tinctas: Ipsa capit clavamque gravem, spoliumque leonis. * Seiz'd on his club, and made it dwindle] Mæonias inter calathum tenuisse puellas Æquaque formosæ pensa rependis heræ. Ovid. Epist. Dejanira Herculi. 'Twas he made emperors gallants 5 360 Set popes and cardinals agog, In cold and frosty weather grow • Set popes and cardinals agog, 365 370 To play with pages at leap-frog;) Cardinal Casa, archbishop of Beneventum, was accused of having written some Italian verses, in his youth, in praise of sodomy. • And flux'd the house of many a burgess;) This alludes to Oliver Cromwell turning the members out of the house of commons, and calling Harry Martin and sir Peter Wentworth whoremasters. Echard's History of England, vol. ii. p. 275. 'Made 'em corvet like Spanish gennets, And take the ring at madam) The Tatler mentions a lady of this stamp, called Bennet. 'Twas he that made St. Francis do More than the devil could tempt him to ;) In the legend of the life of St. Francis, we are told, that being tempted by the devil in the shape of a virgin, he subdued his passion by embracing a pillar of snow. And though she were of rigid temper, Quoth she, If love have these effects, Quoth Hudibras, These sad effects 375 380 385 390 • He hung a garland on his engine. In the history of the life of Lewis XIII. by James Howell, Esq. p. 80. it is said, that the French horsemen who were killed at the Isle of Rhé, had their mistresses' favours tied about their engines. And sung, as out of tune, against, As Turk and Pope are by the saints?] Perhaps the saints were fond of Robert Wisdom's hymn: "Preserve us, Lord, by thy dear word "From Turk and Pope, defend us, Lord." This made the beauteous queen of Crete, To take a town-bull for her sweet;] Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, was in love with a man, whose name was Taurus, or bull. And from her greatness stoop so low, 395 Others, to prostitute their great hearts, By's representative a negro; 400 'Twas this made vestal maids love-sick, And venture to be buried quick.3 Some, by their fathers and their brothers, 405 On lacquies, and varlets-des-chambres ;5 'Twas this made vestal maids love-sick, And venture to be buried quick.] By the Roman law the vestal virgins were buried alive, if they broke their vow of chastity. * Some, by their fathers and their brothers,] Myrrha patrem, sed non quo filia debet, amavit. Ovid. de Arte Am. i. 285. 'Tis this that proudest dames enamours On lacquies, and varlets-des-chambres ;] Varlet was formerly used in the same sense as valet: perhaps our poet might please himself with the meaning given to this word in later days, when it came to denote a rogue. The word knave, which now signifies a cheat, formerly meant no more than a servant. Thus, in an old translation of St. Paul's Epistles, and in Dryden. Mr. Butler, in his Posthumous Works, uses the word varlet for bumbailiff, though I do not find it in this sense in any dictionary. See Butler's Genuine Remains, vol. ii. p. 81. and 171. Thus fur in Latin: Quid domini faciant, audent cum talia fures. Exilis domus est, ubi non et multa supersunt, Hor. Epist. lib. i. 6. 45. The passage is quoted by Plutarch in the life of Lucullus. Their haughty stomachs overcomes, Quoth she, These judgments are severe, Says he, There is a weighty reason That in the windore-eye does steal in • To slight the world, and to disparage 410 415 420 425 Claps, issue, infamy, and marriage.] That is, to slight the opinion of the world, and to undertake the want of issue and marriage on the one hand, and the acquisition of claps and infamy on the other: or perhaps the poet meant a bitter sneer on matrimony, by saying love makes them submit to the embraces of their inferiors, and consequently to disregard four principal evils of such connections, disease, child-bearing, disgrace, and marriage. That at the windore-eye does steal in] Thus it is spelt in most editions, and perhaps most agreeably to the etymology. See Skinner. • Which sooty chymists stop in holes, When out of wood they extract coals ;) Charcoal colliers, in order |
