Hudibras: Part 2 - Canto I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDEFF GHCCIICCJJCCKLCCCCCC CCLLMMNNOO LLLLBPCCQRLLCC OOCCCCLLCCCCBBSOTTLL CCLLCCLLUUOO UUCCLLVWXXLLMMCCOBLL MMLLLLMMWWLLFYBBMM MMCCYYOO LLLLMMCCOOCCLLLLLL LLMMLLLLZZA2A2 ZZCCLLCC MMCCLLLLB2B2LLBC2CCL LNNLL D2D2LLD2D2CCLLOOCCMM LLLLBBLLC2PE2E2 D2D2MMF2F2 D2| THE ARGUMENT | A |
| - | |
| The Knight by damnable Magician | B |
| Being cast illegally in prison | B |
| Love brings his Action on the Case | C |
| And lays it upon Hudibras | C |
| How he receives the Lady's Visit | D |
| And cunningly solicits his Suite | E |
| Which she defers yet on Parole | F |
| Redeems him from th' inchanted Hole | F |
| - | |
| But now t'observe a romantic method | G |
| Let bloody steel a while be sheathed | H |
| And all those harsh and rugged sounds | C |
| Of bastinadoes cuts and wounds | C |
| Exchang'd to Love's more gentle stile | I |
| To let our reader breathe a while | I |
| In which that we may be as brief as | C |
| Is possible by way of preface | C |
| Is't not enough to make one strange | J |
| That some men's fancies should ne'er change | J |
| But make all people do and say | C |
| The same things still the self same way | C |
| Some writers make all ladies purloin'd | K |
| And knights pursuing like a whirlwind | L |
| Others make all their knights in fits | C |
| Of jealousy to lose their wits | C |
| Till drawing blood o'th' dames like witches | C |
| Th' are forthwith cur'd of their capriches | C |
| Some always thrive in their amours | C |
| By pulling plaisters off their sores | C |
| As cripples do to get an alms | C |
| Just so do they and win their dames | C |
| Some force whole regions in despight | L |
| O' geography to change their site | L |
| Make former times shake hands with latter | M |
| And that which was before come after | M |
| But those that write in rhime still make | N |
| The one verse for the other's sake | N |
| For one for sense and one for rhime | O |
| I think's sufficient at one time | O |
| - | |
| But we forget in what sad plight | L |
| We whilom left the captiv'd Knight | L |
| And pensive Squire both bruis'd in body | L |
| And conjur'd into safe custody | L |
| Tir'd with dispute and speaking Latin | B |
| As well as basting and bear baiting | P |
| And desperate of any course | C |
| To free himself by wit or force | C |
| His only solace was that now | Q |
| His dog bolt fortune was so low | R |
| That either it must quickly end | L |
| Or turn about again and mend | L |
| In which he found th' event no less | C |
| Than other times beside his guess | C |
| - | |
| There is a tall long sided dame | O |
| But wond'rous light ycleped Fame | O |
| That like a thin camelion boards | C |
| Herself on air and eats her words | C |
| Upon her shoulders wings she wears | C |
| Like hanging sleeves lin'd through with ears | C |
| And eyes and tongues as poets list | L |
| Made good by deep mythologist | L |
| With these she through the welkin flies | C |
| And sometimes carries truth oft lies | C |
| With letters hung like eastern pigeons | C |
| And Mercuries of furthest regions | C |
| Diurnals writ for regulation | B |
| Of lying to inform the nation | B |
| And by their public use to bring down | S |
| The rate of whetstones in the kingdom | O |
| About her neck a pacquet male | T |
| Fraught with advice some fresh some stale | T |
| Of men that walk'd when they were dead | L |
| And cows of monsters brought to bed | L |
| Of hail stones big as pullets eggs | C |
| And puppies whelp'd with twice two legs | C |
| A blazing star seen in the west | L |
| By six or seven men at least | L |
| Two trumpets she does sound at once | C |
| But both of clean contrary tones | C |
| But whether both with the same wind | L |
| Or one before and one behind | L |
| We know not only this can tell | U |
| The one sounds vilely th' other well | U |
| And therefore vulgar authors name | O |
| Th' one Good the other Evil Fame | O |
| - | |
| This tattling gossip knew too well | U |
| What mischief HUDIBRAS befell | U |
| And straight the spiteful tidings bears | C |
| Of all to th' unkind widow's ears | C |
| DEMOCRITUS ne'er laugh'd so loud | L |
| To see bawds carted through the crowd | L |
| Or funerals with stately pomp | V |
| March slowly on in solemn dump | W |
| As she laugh'd out until her back | X |
| As well as sides was like to crack | X |
| She vow'd she would go see the sight | L |
| And visit the distressed Knight | L |
| To do the office of a neighbour | M |
| And be a gossip at his labour | M |
| And from his wooden jail the stocks | C |
| To set at large his fetter locks | C |
| And by exchange parole or ransom | O |
| To free him from th' enchanted mansion | B |
| This b'ing resolv'd she call'd for hood | L |
| And usher implements abroad | L |
| Which ladies wear beside a slender | M |
| Young waiting damsel to attend her | M |
| All which appearing on she went | L |
| To find the Knight in limbo pent | L |
| And 'twas not long before she found | L |
| Him and the stout Squire in the pound | L |
| Both coupled in enchanted tether | M |
| By further leg behind together | M |
| For as he sat upon his rump | W |
| His head like one in doleful dump | W |
| Between his knees his hands apply'd | L |
| Unto his ears on either side | L |
| And by him in another hole | F |
| Afflicted RALPHO cheek by jowl | Y |
| She came upon him in his wooden | B |
| Magician's circle on the sudden | B |
| As spirits do t' a conjurer | M |
| When in their dreadful shapes th' appear | M |
| - | |
| No sooner did the Knight perceive her | M |
| But straight he fell into a fever | M |
| Inflam'd all over with disgrace | C |
| To be seen by her in such a place | C |
| Which made him hang his head and scoul | Y |
| And wink and goggle like an owl | Y |
| He felt his brains begin to swim | O |
| When thus the dame accosted him | O |
| - | |
| This place quoth she they say's enchanted | L |
| And with delinquent spirits haunted | L |
| That here are ty'd in chains and scourg'd | L |
| Until their guilty crimes be purg'd | L |
| Look there are two of them appear | M |
| Like persons I have seen somewhere | M |
| Some have mistaken blocks and posts | C |
| For spectres apparitions ghosts | C |
| With saucer eyes and horns and some | O |
| Have heard the Devil beat a drum | O |
| But if our eyes are not false glasses | C |
| That give a wrong account of faces | C |
| That beard and I should be acquainted | L |
| Before 'twas conjur'd or enchanted | L |
| For though it be disfigur'd somewhat | L |
| As if 't had lately been in combat | L |
| It did belong to a worthy Knight | L |
| Howe'er this goblin has come by't | L |
| - | |
| When HUDIBRAS the Lady heard | L |
| Discoursing thus upon his beard | L |
| And speak with such respect and honour | M |
| Both of the beard and the beard's owner | M |
| He thought it best to set as good | L |
| A face upon it as he cou'd | L |
| And thus he spoke Lady your bright | L |
| And radiant eyes are in the right | L |
| The beard's th' identic beard you knew | Z |
| The same numerically true | Z |
| Nor is it worn by fiend or elf | A2 |
| But its proprietor himself | A2 |
| - | |
| O heavens quoth she can that be true | Z |
| I do begin to fear 'tis you | Z |
| Not by your individual whiskers | C |
| But by your dialect and discourse | C |
| That never spoke to man or beast | L |
| In notions vulgarly exprest | L |
| But what malignant star alas | C |
| Has brought you both to this sad pass | C |
| - | |
| Quoth he The fortune of the war | M |
| Which I am less afflicted for | M |
| Than to be seen with beard and face | C |
| By you in such a homely case | C |
| Quoth she Those need not he asham'd | L |
| For being honorably maim'd | L |
| If he that is in battle conquer'd | L |
| Have any title to his own beard | L |
| Though yours be sorely lugg'd and torn | B2 |
| It does your visage more adorn | B2 |
| Than if 'twere prun'd and starch'd and lander'd | L |
| And cut square by the Russian standard | L |
| A torn beard's like a tatter'd ensign | B |
| That's bravest which there are most rents in | C2 |
| That petticoat about your shoulders | C |
| Does not so well become a souldier's | C |
| And I'm afraid they are worse handled | L |
| Although i' th' rear your beard the van led | L |
| And those uneasy bruises make | N |
| My heart for company to ake | N |
| To see so worshipful a friend | L |
| I' th' pillory set at the wrong end | L |
| - | |
| Quoth HUDIBRAS This thing call'd pain | D2 |
| Is as the learned Stoicks maintain | D2 |
| Not bad simpliciter nor good | L |
| But merely as 'tis understood | L |
| Sense is deceitful and may feign | D2 |
| As well in counterfeiting pain | D2 |
| As other gross phenomenas | C |
| In which it oft mistakes the case | C |
| But since the immortal intellect | L |
| That's free from error and defect | L |
| Whose objects still persist the same | O |
| Is free from outward bruise and maim | O |
| Which nought external can expose | C |
| To gross material bangs or blows | C |
| It follows we can ne'er be sure | M |
| Whether we pain or not endure | M |
| And just so far are sore and griev'd | L |
| As by the fancy is believ'd | L |
| Some have been wounded with conceit | L |
| And dy'd of mere opinion straight | L |
| Others tho' wounded sore in reason | B |
| Felt no contusion nor discretion | B |
| A Saxon Duke did grow so fat | L |
| That mice as histories relate | L |
| Eat grots and labyrinths to dwell in | C2 |
| His postick parts without his feeling | P |
| Then how is't possible a kick | E2 |
| Should e'er reach that way to the quick | E2 |
| - | |
| Quoth she I grant it is in vain | D2 |
| For one that's basted to feel pain | D2 |
| Because the pangs his bones endure | M |
| Contribute nothing to the cure | M |
| Yet honor hurt is wont to rage | F2 |
| With pain no med'cine can asswage | F2 |
| - | |
| Quoth he That honou | D2 |
Samuel Butler
(1)
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Hudibras: Part 2 - Canto I is a poem by Samuel Butler. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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