PART III.-CANTO II.

This, the longest canto in the whole poem, is no part of the actual story of Hudibras, which in fact is now really ended. There are no more adventures to recount, and Butler now turns to satirizing the Puritan party in all its sections in a more direct and less allegorical manner than hitherto.

6. in a storm.

ARGUMENT.

There are many allusions in English literature to the storm which closely preceded Cromwell's

death. Cf.

A fierce loud-buzzing breeze their stings draw blood,
And drive the cattle gadding through the wood.'

DRYDEN'S Translation of Virgil, Georgics, Bk. III.

10. corrupted texts. The disputes of Presbyterians and Independents were argued by minute inquiries as to the exact wording of the Scriptures (cf. Introduction to Part I., p. xxv.). The dispute therefore whether there should be a central authority or not turned much on Acts vi. 3, 'Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy

Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.' This text made in favour of central authority, but some copies of the Bible being found to read whom ye may appoint,' the Independents were accused of having garbled the text to serve their plea that each congregation should enjoy its own church government. This charge against them is erroneous however, as the mistake appears in the Cambridge edition of 1638.

16. that empire. The chief authority amongst the Magi.

25. fadged. Agreed. Cf. How will this fadge?'SHAKSPEARE, Twelfth Night, II. ii. 34.

40. cross the cudgels to. Go over to the side of.

43.

like thieves, &c. The hemp that ought to hang them hides them, so the Presbyterians were defended by the laws that should have punished them.

50. scire facias. See note on III. i. 1038.

78. utter barrister of Swanswick. This is William Prynne, who was born in that place (cf. note on I. i. 646). An utter barrister or 'outer' barrister, is one who is not a bencher, not a King's Counsel, nor a Serjeant.

80. sand-bags. These were slung to the end of a staff, and were the duelling weapons of the lower orders. See the stage directions in Shakspeare's Henry VII., Part II., Act ii., Scene 3.- Enter at one door, Horner the Armourer and his Neighbours, drinking to him so much that he is drunk; and he enters with a drum before him and his staff with a sand-bag fastened to it.'

91. reformado saint. Cf. II. ii. 116.

95. uses. The application to particular cases of a doctrine laid down generally is the use,' and the word had become technical as a division of a sermon.

146. sooterkin. A fabulous jest against Dutch women, that owing to their use of portable stoves they give birth to an offspring of the stove-a sooterkin, at the same time as to their children.

177. bretheren, metri gratia.

215.

hurricane. Cf. note on 1. 6. Cf. also
'And the isle, when her protecting genius went,
Upon his obsequies loud sighs conferred.'

DRYDEN, On the Death of Cromwell, Stanza 35.

'Nature herself took notice of his death,

And, sighing, swelled the sea with such a breath,
That, to remotest shores her billows rolled,
The approaching fate of their great ruler told."

WALLER, Upon the Death of the Lord Protector.

''Nature herself rejoiced at his death,

And on the waters sung with such a breath,
As made the sea dance higher than before,

While her glad waves came dancing to the shore.'

CLEVELAND, Answer to the above.

218. moral. There is a reading 'mortal,' which is clearly

erroneous.

Cf. 'The

220. Sterry. One of Cromwell's cnapiains. news of his death being brought to those who were met together to pray for him, Mr. Peter Sterry stood up and desired them not to be troubled; "for," said he, "this is good news, because if he was of great use to the people of God when he was among us, now he will be much more so being ascended to Heaven at the right hand of Jesus Christ, there to intercede for us and to be mindful of us on all occasions."-ECHARD, History of England, Edit. 1720, Book III., chap. ii.; Vol. II. p. 734.

Such a gross want of taste, to say the least of it, was justly an object of Butler's satire, and the materials were ready to his hand. There were near Westminster Hall three taverns known in the slang of the day as Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. When Oliver's remains were disinterred, and his head fixed on Westminster Hall, it was close to the last named of these taverns; so Butler, who seems never to have lost a chance, here hints that Sterry only mistook one heaven for the other.

This case well illustrates the difficulty of following an author like Butler. Into a single couplet whereof the allusion would be perfectly well understood in his own day, he compresses some years of time and many minute events of social and political history.

228. a senator. 'Namque Proculus Julius, sollicita civitate desiderio regis et infensa Patribus gravis, ut traditur, quamvis magnae rei auctor, in concionem prodit, Romulus, inquit, Quirites, parens urbis hujus, prima hodierna luce cœlo repente delapsus, se mihi obvium dedit. Quum perfusus horrore venerabundusque adstitissem petens precibus ut contra intueri fas esset-Abi, nuncia, inquit, Romanis, cœlestes ita velle ut mea Roma caput orbis terrarum sit; proinde rem militarem colant; sciantque et ita posteris tradant, nullas opes humanas armis Romanis resistere posse: haec, inquit, locutus, sublimis abiit.'-LIVY, Book I., c. xvi.

236. that rode him. Reversing the position of things in I. i. 924.

237. the saints. The reference is to the 'Committee of Safety.There being now a perfect anarchy, the officers who were masters of the nation first appointed a council of ten of their own body to take care of the public, and having restored their general officers, they concluded upon a select number of men to assume the administration, under the title of a Committee of Safety, which consisted of twenty-three persons, who had the same authority and power that the late council of state had, to manage all public affairs till they could agree upon a new settlement.'NEAL, History of the Puritans, Vol. IV. c. iv. anno 1659.

243. cantons...Hans towns; that is, free to erect spiritual republics on the modes of Swiss cantons or the Hanseatic League.

246. John of Leyden. Leader of the Anabaptists of Germany in the sixteenth century. These German Anabaptists must be carefully distinguished from the sect of the same name in England. In Germany they united an extreme socialism to their religious doctrines. John of Leyden joined them, and appearing in 1533 in Munster, the people flocked to hear him, and regarded him as a prophet. Catholics and Protestants alike hated him, and at length left the town under the command of the Bishop of Munster and returned to besiege John of Leyden therein. The town was vigorously defended but carried at length by treachery, and John of Leyden and two of his friends were publicly tortured and finally hung in iron cages on St. Lambert's Tower in the city, and so perished miserably, 1536.

The history of the movement in Germany is extremely obscure and very untrustworthy, as we are almost entirely dependent on their enemies for our knowledge of the Anabaptists.

256. fadging. Cf. note on 1. 25.

269. king Jesus. Allusion to the Fifth Monarchy Men,' who expected immediately the second coming of Christ, and would have no government set up in order that when he came he might find no rival institutions to interfere with his reign.

272.

Agitators. In 1647, while the disputes between Army and Parliament were at their height, the army elected a new council to guard their interests. It consisted of two men, either inferior officers or private soldiers, from each regiment, and to this council was given the name of 'Adjutators,' which was afterwards corrupted to 'Agitators.' Safety. Committee of Safety. Cf. 1. 237.

283. prophecies. What particular prophecy is here alluded to is not now known. Warburton thought it meant a crusade against the Pope, but there is no trace of such a plan having been prominently advocated, and moreover an allusion to it in this particular place would be apropos of nothing. The most probable explanation is that it alludes again to the Fifth Monarchy Men who were strongly for making all things ready for the fulfilment of prophecies as to the second coming of Christ. But cf. 1. 296, and note.

286. holydays. Festival days were abolished by edict, as also all sports such as maypoles, &c. To the fact that the Puritans did their best to reduce English life to the level of a perpetual funeral must be attributed much of the licentious reaction of the days of the Restoration, whilst their influence has been permanent enough to make an English holiday a gloomy and joyless affair even yet.

poundage. Tonnage (properly tunnage) and poundage were duties levied on each tun of wine and pound of other goods exported or imported. They were thus the origin of our present 'customs duties,' and date from about 1346. These duties it was usual to vote to the king either temporarily or for life. Charles I. continued to levy them by his own authority though they had not been voted to him by the Parliament; thus giving great offence. Under the Commonwealth a poundage was levied on property.

287. groves. The pillars in churches, which were said to have originally been an imitation of the trunks of the trees in the groves wherein were worshipped the pagan deities. Being hence voted idolatrous, a great outcry was made for their destruction.

294. the one and th' other sword. 'The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.'—Ephesians vi. 17. Cf.

'But that two-handed engine at the door

Stands ready to smite once and smite no more.

MILTON, Lycidas, 130.

296. against the Pope. These words would seem to lend some authority to Warburton's interpretation of 1. 283 above. But the real reference is now lost. It is quite probable that some fanatics may have attracted a passing attention by advocating the duty of Puritan crusades.

298. camisado. A night expedition in which the soldiers wear their shirts outside, to be known by their friends in the dark and so obviate the danger of falling on one another. In history the Camisards were the French Protestants who held out in the Cevennes after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Over their armour they wore a camise or peasant's smock.