As if rules were not in the schools Derived from truth, but truth from rules. 1360 Is good for nothing but contention. For as in sword-and-buckler fight, And then they fall to th' argument.' Quoth Hudibras, 'Friend Ralph, thou hast Out-run the constable at last: For thou art fallen on a new 1370 Dispute, as senseless as untrue, But to the former opposite, And contrary as black to white; T' evince thee by' ratiocination, Some other time, in place more proper 1380 Than this we're in; therefore let's stop here, And rest our weary bones a while, Already tired with other toil,' NOTES. PART I.-CANTO I. ARGUMENT. 1. Hudibras. There has been an immense amount of speculation as to the origin of this name. Nash considers that Butler probably took it from Spenser, Faerie Queene, II., ii. 17. 'He that made love unto the eldest dame Was hight Sir Hudibras, an hardy man ; Others, again, have supposed that it might be derived from the French, Hugo or Hugh de Bras, i.e. Hugh with the Strong Arm. Cf. also Geoffrey of Monmouth, Hist. Reg. Brit., Lib. II. § 9: Vixit deinde Leir post sumptum regnum viginti quinque annis, sed regnum tepide in fine rexit. Quocirca segnitia insistente, civilis discordia in regno orta est. Post hunc regnavit filius ejus Hudibras triginta novem annis: qui populum ex civili dissidio in concordiam reducens condidit Kaerlem, hoc est Kantuariam. Tum Capys filius Epiti regnabat: et Aggeus, Amos, Joel, Azarias prophetebant.' This is another possible origin of the name, and one which the curiousness of Butler's learning brings within the range of probability. Cf. also the Memoirs of the Society of Grub Street, No. 53, 1731 :— 'There was, when Butler wrote Hudibras, one Colonel Rolls, a Devonshire man, who lodged with him and was exactly like his description of the knight: whence it is highly probable that it was this gentleman and not Sir Samuel Luke, whose person he had in his eye. The reason that he gave for calling his poem Hudibras was because the name of the old tutelar saint of Devonshire was Hugo de Bra.' This is evidence worthy of consideration; but on the other hand in the Key to Hudibras, printed in 1715 and attributed to Roger L'Estrange, we find: Hudibras, a name which the author of that excellent poem so intitl'd bestows on Sir Samuel Luke of Bedfordshire, a selfconceited commander under Oliver Cromwel.' And there can be little question that this is the real original from which the character of Hudibras is drawn. Cf. lines 15 and 902, and Introduction, p. кV. in the middle. It is not easy to see why Bishop Warburton should have considered these lines to be a ridicule on Ronsard's Franciade, and Sir William Davenant's Gondibert. Both these works, it is true, were unfinished, but such a coincidence is far too slender a thread to hang a theory on. CANTO I. 1. civil fury. The first edition reads dudgeon. It was altered by Butler in his edition of 1674 to civil fury, and has remained so in most subsequent editions. Whether the change was an improvement is open to much doubt. Dudgeon is a good burlesque word. It occurs in another sense in Hudibras, for a small dagger. Cf. I. i. 379 and note, where the two words are distinguished. 2. knew not why. 'There will never be wanting in any country some discontented spirits and some designing craftsmen, but when these confusions began the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.'-PERRINCHEIF's Life of Charles I. 3. hard words. Cf. note on line 111. jealousies and fears. These were words constantly bandied between Charles I. and the Parliament. See the King's answer to the petition for the militia, 1641, 'You speak of jealousies and fears; lay your hands to your hearts and ask yourselves, whether I may not be disturbed with jealousies and fears.' 4. folks. An incorrect double plural. Folk is a collective noun, and the added s is redundant. 6. as for punk. That is, as for a mistress. Cf. Religion now is a young mistress here For which each man will fight and die at least ; A kind of married wife; people will be Content to live with it in quietness.' SIR J. SUCKLING, Brennoralt, Act. III. Sc. i. |