Hudibras, Part I (excerpts) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK LLMMNNOODDPQHHRRHHSS DDTTUUVVWWXXRRUYKKDD YYYYYYYYUU KKYYYYUUDDUUZZYY A2A2B2C2EEKKUUD2E2YY UUZZZZDDUUYYF2F2YYZZ G2G2UUUU HHDDYYYH HHH2I2HHYU YYKKDDZZUUYDHHDDDDDD YYDDYYUUYYYYZZYYUUYY YYHHDDDDYYHH YYDDYYZZDHUUZZZZYYUU UUKKYHTHE ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST CANTOSir Hudibras his passing worth | A |
The manner how he sallied forth | B |
His arms and equipage are shown | C |
His horse's virtues and his own | C |
Th' adventure of the bear and fiddle | D |
Is sung but breaks off in the middle | D |
When civil fury first grew high | E |
And men fell out they knew not why | E |
When hard words jealousies and fears | F |
Set folks together by the ears | F |
And made them fight like mad or drunk | G |
For Dame Religion as for punk | G |
Whose honesty they all durst swear for | H |
Though not a man of them knew wherefore | H |
When Gospel Trumpeter surrounded | I |
With long ear'd rout to battle sounded | I |
And pulpit drum ecclesiastic | J |
Was beat with fist instead of a stick | J |
Then did Sir Knight abandon dwelling | K |
And out he rode a colonelling | K |
- | |
A wight he was whose very sight would | L |
Entitle him Mirror of Knighthood | L |
That never bent his stubborn knee | M |
To any thing but Chivalry | M |
Nor put up blow but that which laid | N |
Right worshipful on shoulder blade | N |
Chief of domestic knights and errant | O |
Either for cartel or for warrant | O |
Great on the bench great in the saddle | D |
That could as well bind o'er as swaddle | D |
Mighty he was at both of these | P |
And styl'd of war as well as peace | Q |
So some rats of amphibious nature | H |
Are either for the land or water | H |
But here our authors make a doubt | R |
Whether he were more wise or stout | R |
Some hold the one and some the other | H |
But howsoe'er they make a pother | H |
The diff'rence was so small his brain | S |
Outweigh'd his rage but half a grain | S |
Which made some take him for a tool | D |
That knaves do work with call'd a fool | D |
And offer to lay wagers that | T |
As Montaigne playing with his cat | T |
Complains she thought him but an ass | U |
Much more she would Sir Hudibras | U |
For that's the name our valiant knight | V |
To all his challenges did write | V |
But they're mistaken very much | W |
'Tis plain enough he was no such | W |
We grant although he had much wit | X |
H' was very shy of using it | X |
As being loth to wear it out | R |
And therefore bore it not about | R |
Unless on holy days or so | U |
As men their best apparel do | Y |
Beside 'tis known he could speak Greek | K |
As naturally as pigs squeak | K |
That Latin was no more difficile | D |
Than to a blackbird 'tis to whistle | D |
Being rich in both he never scanted | Y |
His bounty unto such as wanted | Y |
But much of either would afford | Y |
To many that had not one word | Y |
For Hebrew roots although th'are found | Y |
To flourish most in barren ground | Y |
He had such plenty as suffic'd | Y |
To make some think him circumcis'd | Y |
And truly so perhaps he was | U |
'Tis many a pious Christian's case | U |
- | |
He was in logic a great critic | K |
Profoundly skill'd in analytic | K |
He could distinguish and divide | Y |
A hair 'twixt south and south west side | Y |
On either which he would dispute | Y |
Confute change hands and still confute | Y |
He'd undertake to prove by force | U |
Of argument a man's no horse | U |
He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl | D |
And that a lord may be an owl | D |
A calf an alderman a goose a justice | U |
And rooks Committee men and Trustees | U |
He'd run in debt by disputation | Z |
And pay with ratiocination | Z |
All this by syllogism true | Y |
In mood and figure he would do | Y |
- | |
For rhetoric he could not ope | A2 |
His mouth but out there flew a trope | A2 |
And when he happen'd to break off | B2 |
I' th' middle of his speech or cough | C2 |
H' had hard words ready to show why | E |
And tell what rules he did it by | E |
Else when with greatest art he spoke | K |
You'd think he talk'd like other folk | K |
For all a rhetorician's rules | U |
Teach nothing but to name his tools | U |
His ordinary rate of speech | D2 |
In loftiness of sound was rich | E2 |
A Babylonish dialect | Y |
Which learned pedants much affect | Y |
It was a parti colour'd dress | U |
Of patch'd and pie bald languages | U |
'Twas English cut on Greek and Latin | Z |
Like fustian heretofore on satin | Z |
It had an odd promiscuous tone | Z |
As if h' had talk'd three parts in one | Z |
Which made some think when he did gabble | D |
Th' had heard three labourers of Babel | D |
Or Cerberus himself pronounce | U |
A leash of languages at once | U |
This he as volubly would vent | Y |
As if his stock would ne'er be spent | Y |
And truly to support that charge | F2 |
He had supplies as vast and large | F2 |
For he would coin or counterfeit | Y |
New words with little or no wit | Y |
Words so debas'd and hard no stone | Z |
Was hard enough to touch them on | Z |
And when with hasty noise he spoke 'em | G2 |
The ignorant for current took 'em | G2 |
That had the orator who once | U |
Did fill his mouth with pebble stones | U |
When he harangu'd but known his phrase | U |
He would have us'd no other ways | U |
- | |
In mathematics he was greater | H |
Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater | H |
For he by geometric scale | D |
Could take the size of pots of ale | D |
Resolve by sines and tangents straight | Y |
If bread or butter wanted weight | Y |
And wisely tell what hour o' th' day | Y |
The clock does strike by algebra | H |
- | |
Beside he was a shrewd philosopher | H |
And had read ev'ry text and gloss over | H |
Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath | H2 |
He understood b' implicit faith | I2 |
Whatever sceptic could inquire for | H |
For ev'ry why he had a wherefore | H |
Knew more than forty of them do | Y |
As far as words and terms could go | U |
- | |
All which he understood by rote | Y |
And as occasion serv'd would quote | Y |
No matter whether right or wrong | K |
They might be either said or sung | K |
His notions fitted things so well | D |
That which was which he could not tell | D |
But oftentimes mistook th' one | Z |
For th' other as great clerks have done | Z |
He could reduce all things to acts | U |
And knew their natures by abstracts | U |
Where entity and quiddity | Y |
The ghosts of defunct bodies fly | D |
Where truth in person does appear | H |
Like words congeal'd in northern air | H |
He knew what's what and that's as high | D |
As metaphysic wit can fly | D |
In school divinity as able | D |
As he that hight Irrefragable | D |
Profound in all the Nominal | D |
And Real ways beyond them all | D |
And with as delicate a hand | Y |
Could twist as tough a rope of sand | Y |
And weave fine cobwebs fit for skull | D |
That's empty when the moon is full | D |
Such as take lodgings in a head | Y |
That's to be let unfurnished | Y |
He could raise scruples dark and nice | U |
And after solve 'em in a trice | U |
As if Divinity had catch'd | Y |
The itch on purpose to be scratch'd | Y |
Or like a mountebank did wound | Y |
And stab herself with doubts profound | Y |
Only to show with how small pain | Z |
The sores of Faith are cur'd again | Z |
Although by woful proof we find | Y |
They always leave a scar behind | Y |
He knew the seat of Paradise | U |
Could tell in what degree it lies | U |
And as he was dispos'd could prove it | Y |
Below the moon or else above it | Y |
What Adam dreamt of when his bride | Y |
Came from her closet in his side | Y |
Whether the devil tempted her | H |
By an High Dutch interpreter | H |
If either of them had a navel | D |
Who first made music malleable | D |
Whether the serpent at the fall | D |
Had cloven feet or none at all | D |
All this without a gloss or comment | Y |
He could unriddle in a moment | Y |
In proper terms such as men smatter | H |
When they throw out and miss the matter | H |
- | |
For his Religion it was fit | Y |
To match his learning and his wit | Y |
'Twas Presbyterian true blue | D |
For he was of that stubborn crew | D |
Of errant saints whom all men grant | Y |
To be the true Church Militant | Y |
Such as do build their faith upon | Z |
The holy text of pike and gun | Z |
Decide all controversies by | D |
Infallible artillery | H |
And prove their doctrine orthodox | U |
By apostolic blows and knocks | U |
Call fire and sword and desolation | Z |
A godly thorough reformation | Z |
Which always must be carried on | Z |
And still be doing never done | Z |
As if religion were intended | Y |
For nothing else but to be mended | Y |
A sect whose chief devotion lies | U |
In odd perverse antipathies | U |
In falling out with that or this | U |
And finding somewhat still amiss | U |
More peevish cross and splenetic | K |
Than dog distract or monkey sick | K |
That with more care keep holy day | Y |
The wrong than others the | H |
Samuel Butler
(1)
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