# Hudibras/Part 3/An Heroical Epistle of Hudibras to his Lady

AN HEROICAL EPISTLE
OF
HUDIBRAS TO HIS LADY.
* ↑ See Daniel, chap. iv. verses 32, 33.
* ↑ This line must be read— "The guilty 'nd punish th' innocent."
* ↑ That is, condemn or pass sentence upon.
* ↑ So "Waller:All that we know of those above, Is, that they live and that they love. But the Spanish priest Henriquez, in his singular book entitled "The business of the Saints in Heaven," printed at Salamanca, 1631, assumes to know more about them. He says that every saint shall have his particular house in heaven, and Christ a most magnificent palace! That there shall be large streets, great piazzas, fountains, and gardens. That there shall be a sovereign pleasure in kissing and embracing the bodies of the blest; and pleasant baths, where they shall bathe themselves in each other's company; that all shall sing like nightingales, and delight themselves in masquerades, feasts, and ballads; and that the angels shall be attired as females, and present themselves to the saints in full costume, with curls and locks, waistcoats and fardingales.
* ↑ The Knight sophistically argues that heaven cannot resent love as a sin, since it is itself love, and therefore all love is heaven.
* ↑ Aristotle defined law to be, reason without passion; and despotism, or arbitrary power, to be, passion without reason.
* ↑ Why should you, who were sharp and witty from your infancy, who bred wit with your teeth, &c.
* ↑ Foolish, or easily gulled.
* ↑ That is, we are no less subdued by your oaths than by your stratagems.
* ↑ The Parthians were excellent horsemen and very dexterous in shooting their arrows behind them, by which means their flight was often as destructive to the enemy as their attack.
* ↑ Nye was a member of the Assembly of Divines, and as remarkable for his beard as for his fanaticism. He first entered at Brazen-nose college, Oxford, and afterwards removed to Magdalen-hall, where he took his degrees, and then went to Holland. In 1640 he returned home a furious Presbyterian; and was sent to Scotland to forward the Covenant. He then became a strenuous preacher on the side of the Independents: "was put into Dr Featly's living at Acton, and rode there every Lord's day in triumph in a coach drawn by four horses." He attacked Lilly the astrologer from the pulpit with considerable virulence, and for this service was rewarded with the office of holding forth upon thanksgiving days. WhereforeHe thought upon it, and resolv'd to put His beard into as wonderful a cut. Butler's MS. This preacher's beard is honoured with an entire poem in Butler's Genuine Remains, vol. i. p. 177. Indeed beards at that period were the prominent part of fashionable costume: when the head of a celebrated court chaplain and preacher had been dressed in a superior style, the friscur exclaimed, with a mixture of admiration and self-applause, "I'll be hang'd if any person of taste can attend to one word of the sermon to-day."
* ↑ To increase the catalogue of their discarded suitors.
* ↑ The poet may here possibly allude to some well-known characters of his time. Bishop Burnet says: "The Lady Dysart came to have so much power over Lord Lauderdale, that it lessened him very much in the esteem of all the world; for he delivered himself up to all her humours and passions." And we know that Anne Clarges, at first the mistress, and afterward the wife of General Monk, duke of Albemarle, gained the most undue influence over that intrepid commander, who, though never afraid of bullets, was often terrified by the fury of his wife.
* ↑ See St John viii. 44. Butler, in his MS. Common-place Book, says,As lyars, with long use of telling lyes, Forget at length if they are true or false, So those that plod on anything too long, Know nothing whether th' are in the right or wrong; For what are all your demonstrations else. But to the higher powers of sense appeals; Senses that th' undervalue and contemn As if it lay below their wits and them.
* ↑ Var. daily do, in all editions to 1716 inclusive.
* ↑ This refers to the well-known story of the Rape of the Sabines.
* ↑ Thus printed in some editions of the Prayer Book; afterwards altered, "till death us do part," as mentioned in a former note. In some editions of Hudibras this line reads, "Till alimony or death them parts."
* ↑ The whole of this stanza refers to the rape of the Sabines. The Romans, under Koniulus, pretending to exhibit some fine shows and diversions, drew together a concourse of young women, and seized them for their wives.
* ↑ When the Sabines came with a large army to demand their daughters, and the two nations were preparing to decide the matter by tight, the women who had been carried away ran between the armies with strong manifestations of grief, and thus effected a reconciliation.
* ↑ That is, man sometimes called lord of the world:Man of all creatures the most fierce and wild That ever God made or the devil spoil'd: The most courageous of men, by want, As well as honour, are made valiant.Butler's MS.
* ↑ Mr Case, as some have supposed, but, according to others, Dr Burgess, or Hugh Peters. Most probably the latter, as in several volumes and tracts of the time Peters is distinctly accused of gross lechery; and in Thurloe's State Papers (vol. iv. p. 784) it is stated that he was found with a whore a-bed, and grew mad, and said nothing but "O blood, blood, that troubles me."
* ↑ See Butler's "Character of a Wooer."
* ↑ The Knight's prolix superscription to his love-letter is in the fashionable style of the time. Common forms were—To my much honoured friend—To the most excellent lady—To my loving cousin—these present with care and speed, &c.
* ↑ Don Quixote, when he sent his squire Sancho Panza to his mistress Dulcinea del Toboso, gives him similar directions.