The

trived for 'chucking' scolding women into the water. lynch law of our ancestors had various devices for the punishment of scolds, as the scold's bridle, a kind of gag the woman was compelled to wear in a procession, not unlike that of the Skimmington. It would seem highly probable, however, that the name cucking-stool is closely related to cuckold, and points to a more serious offence than mere scolding. In this latter case it would have the same etymological history as the word cuckold, of which the last -d is excrescent. This leaves cuckol Lat: cuculus cuckoo, the bird that lives in other birds' nests. Be that as it may, the cucking-stool was an object common enough in the country in Butler's day. It consisted of a wooden chair fastened to the end of a long pole suspended lever-fashion over a pool of water. In this chair the scold was fastened, and by raising the shore end, the end over the water was depressed, and the woman immersed. As she was generally half drowned in the process, and as the particular water was selected for anything rather than cleanliness, it will readily occur that this brutal custom inflicted a really severe punishment.

744. to wed. This ceremony was instituted in 1174, by Pope Alexander III., who gave the Doge a gold ring from his finger, in token of the victory achieved by the Venetian fleet at Istria, over Frederic Barbarossa, in defence of the Pope's quarrel; desiring him at the same time to throw a similar ring into the sea every year on Ascension Day in commemoration of the event. On throwing the ring into the sea, the Doge repeats the words, 'Desponsamus te, mare, in signum veri et perpetui dominii.'

761. Ethnic. Popish. So used by Dryden of the Popish plot

'Saw with disdain an Ethnic plot begun,
And scorned by Jebusites to be outdone.'
Absalom and Achitophel, 1. 517.

775. women who were our first apostles. The fair sex took a prominent part in the sacrifices of the war on both sides. NEAL, in his History of the Puritans, Vol. II. chap. xi., mentions' thimbles and bodkins' as among the contributions to the first Parliament loan for conducting the operations against the king.

781. cullies. Those fondly infatuated with them. Cf. note 'Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to his Lady,' l. 168.

789. rap and rend. First edition reads 'rap and run.' 798. caudle. Lat. calidus, a warm drink.

803. raised rampires. This actually happened, not only at the siege of Coventry, but also when the train-bands were called out to defend London.

T

810. a committee. A satirical pamphlet, published in 1647, quoted by Grey, and called The Parliament of Ladies, or divers remarkable Passages of Ladies in Spring Garden in Parliament assembled, states that 'The House considered in the next place that diverse weak persons have crept into places beyond their abilitys; and to the end that men of greater parts may be put into their rooms, they appointed Lady Middlesex, Mrs. Dunch, the Lady Foster, the Lady Anne Waller, by reason of their great experience in soldiery in the kingdom, to be a Committee of Tryers for the business.'

818. orange-tawny. This was the colour at first taken by the army of the Parliament, being the colours of Essex, their first commander. But there is another allusion. Orangetawny was the colour worn by Jews and persons of the lowest rank. Cf.

Bottom. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play it in?

Quince. Why, what you will.

Bottom. I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow.

SHAKS. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act I. Sc. ii.

So also Bacon, Essay xli., "They say. that usurers should have orange-tawny bonnets, because they do judaize.'

879. Vespasian. Cf. Suetonius, Life of Vespasian, c. 5. 'Mox quum Aedilem eum C. Caesar succensens curam verendis viis non adhibitam luto jussisset oppleri, congesto per milites in praetextae sinum, non defuerunt qui interpretarentur, quandoque proculcatam desertamque rempublicam civili aliqua perturbatione in tutelam ejus ac velut in gremium, deventuram.'

PART II.-CANTO III.

3.

8.

ARGUMENT.

Rosicrucian. Cf. I. i. 545, and note.

=

CANTO III.

catch larks by night. Alluding to the 'low bell' (low, like glow, light), an old means of catching birds by night. Confused by the noise of a bell and dazzled by the light of a lantern they readily fly into the nets.

'Write dull receipts how poems may be made.'

POPE, Essay on Criticism, 1. 115.

30. Aruspicy and Augury. The Haruspex was the soothsayer whose special office it was to examine the entrails of victims slain in sacrifice, and thence to deduce omens. The Augur was originally a diviner of omens in the flight of birds, but the word acquired a wider signification, and the augur's observations extended to atmospheric phenomena of all kinds (ex caelo), to the behaviour of the sacred chickens (ex tripudiis) or of quadrupeds (ex quadrupedibus), as well as of birds generally (ex avibus). Much interesting etymology is connected with the practices of the augurs. They first marked out (réμva) a division of the heavens within which to take the observations, called a templum, a name afterwards extended to the sacred inclosure (temple) in which they stood to contemplate.' Haruspex is hira, the entrails, and the root spec, 'behold.'

31. garbages of cattle. The Haruspices are alluded to. Cf. 'Per idem tempus Uticae forte G. Mario per hostias deis supplicanti magna atque mirabilia portendi haruspex dixerat ; proinde, quae animo agitabat, fretus deis ageret, fortunam quam sæpissume experiretur, cuncta prospere eventura.'-SALLUST, Bell. Jug. c. 63.

33. chickens pecking. The allusion is doubtless to the story of the Roman Consul P. Claudius, who in the year B.C. 249, was cut to pieces in a naval engagement against the Carthaginians outside the harbour of Drepanum. The sacred chickens that accompanied Roman expeditions, on this occasion refused to eat, and the 'Pullarii' besought the Consul not to engage. 'Then let them drink,' he replied, and ordered them to be thrown into the sea;-an impiety for which he was considered to be justly punished by the total rout of his fleet. The tale is, however, doubtful, though the defeat is historical; and Mommsen, following Polybius, says nothing about the chickens.

57. pen'worth of his thought = the whole sum and value of it. Cf. the common saying-'A penny for your

thoughts.'

60. on the tenters. Tenters are hooks on which anything is stretched (tendo), as cloth for working, &c.

88. knight of the post. Cf. I. i. 583, and note.

93. enucleate. Take out the kernel of a nut,-solve a problem.

106. Sidrophel. The original of this character is generally supposed to be William Lilly, who has already been alluded to under the name of Erra Pater, I. 1. 120. But in this case, as in that of Hudibras himself, it is not probable that Butler adheres strictly to any one original.

113. pullen

=

poultry (Fr. poule).

Seduced in the proper sense of led away.

114. chowsed. To cheat out of something. A word now more common in the north than in other parts of England. It would appear that the interpreter to the Turkish embassy was called a chiaus, and in 1609 this official defrauded his government of some £4000. The magnitude of the swindle gave the name of Chiaus' to any kind of cheating transaction. Cf.'What do you think of me

That I am a Chiaus?'

BEN JONSON, Alchemist, Act I. Sc. i.

The Alchemist was published in 1610, and the above lines would therefore have been one of the current allusions with which playwrights have always been accustomed to draw a cheer.

140.

ledger, a resident ambassador. The word occurs

twice in Shakspeare in the form leiger

'Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift ambassador,

Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.'

Measure for Measure, III. i. 5 7.

'I have given him that

Which if he take shall quite unpeople her
Of leigers for her sweet.'

Cymbeline, I. v. 78.

The particular ledger' referred to is one Matthew Hopkins who styled himself the Witchfinder General.' In one year he hanged threescore women in Suffolk only on pretence of having identified them as witches. The miserable victims were frequently compelled to confess by the most cruel tortures, some of which are alluded to in the text. A common test was

to tie the toes and thumbs of the suspected witch together and lower her gently into water. If she floated it was because the water refused to receive her, and her guilt was clear. Since according to the specific gravity of the human body very few persons would sink under these circumstances, of course conviction almost always followed this method of trial.

146. sitting above ground. Alluding to the method of testing the supposed witch by seating her on the ground with her legs tied tightly across, and so keeping her for twenty-four hours without food or sleep. After the first few hours the torture became acute, and many poor wretches confessed to their witchcraft under it, deliberately preferring death to its further endurance.

153. proved himself a witch. "These two last verses I suppose relate to that which I have often heard, that Hopkins went on searching and swimming the poor creatures, till some gentleman, out of indignation at the barbarity, took him and tied his own thumbs and toes as he used to tye others, and when he was put into the water he himself swam as they did. That cleared the country of him, and it was a great deal of pity that they did not think of the experiment sooner.'-D. HUTCHINSON, Historical Essay on Witchcraft, Edit. 1720, p. 86.

155. to Martin Luther. Luther was a firm believer in witchcraft and in the visible appearances of the Devil. His Table Talk, and the work De Missa Privata, contain many allusions to these beliefs. He claimed to have driven away the fiend by jeering at him with jests quite unfit for ears polite. He is even reported to have once shied his inkstand at the Devil's head, though it is not reported that the scholarly missile encountered anything but the wall.

160. at Antwerp. During the Civil Wars of Flanders the cathedral at Antwerp was broken open and ransacked by a mob. Strada tells that devils were seen aiding them. Cf. 'Sane si non centimani fuere qui tam brevi tam multa demoliti sunt, non absurdum sit credere (quod aliquos tum suspicatos scio) Daemones hominibus immistos operam in id suam praevalide consociasse.'-STRADA, De Bello Belgico, Lib. V. Vol. I. Edit. Romae, 1640.

p. 154,