And equal fame and glory from
Th' attempt, or victory to come.
'Tis sung, there is a valiant Mamaluke
In foreign land, yclep'd —3

To whom we have been oft compar'd

For person, parts, address, and beard;
Both equally reputed stout,

And in the same cause both have fought:
He oft, in such attempts as these,

Came off with glory and success:
Nor will we fail in th' execution,
For want of equal resolution.
Honour is, like a widow, won

With brisk attempt and putting on ;
With ent'ring manfully and urging;

Not slow approaches, like a virgin.

900

905

910

This said, as once the Phrygian knight,* 915 So ours, with rusty steel did smite

3 'Tis sung, there is a valiant Mamaluke In foreign land, yclep'd -] The break in the second line is commonly filled up with the name of Sir Samuel Luke. See the note at line 14. The word Mamluck signifies acquired, possessed: and the Mamlukes or Mamalukes were persons carried off, in their childhood, by merchants or banditti, from Georgia, Circassia, Natolia, and the various provinces of the Ottoman empire, and afterwards sold in Constantinople and Grand Cairo. The grandees of Egypt, who had a similar origin, bring them up in their houses. They often rise first to be cachefs or lieutenants, and then to be beys or petty tyrants. Volney's Travels. Thus, in the English civil wars, many rose from the lowest rank in life to considerable power.

This said, as once the Phrygian knight,] Laocoon; who, at the siege of Troy, struck the wooden horse with his spear

His Trojan horse, and just as much
He mended pace upon the touch ;
But from his empty stomach groan'd,
Just as that hollow beast did sound,
And, angry, answer'd from behind,
With brandish'd tail and blast of wind.

So have I seen, with armed heel,

A wight bestride a Common-weal,"

920

While still the more he kick'd and spurr'd, 925 The less the sullen jade has stirr'd.

Sic fatus, validis ingentem viribus hastam
In latus inque feri curvam compagibus alvum
Contorsit stetit illa tremens, uteroque recusso
Insonuere cavæ gemitumque dedere cavernæ.

5 So have I seen, with armed heel,

Virg. Æneid. ii. 50.

A wight bestride a Common-weal,] Our poet might possibly have in mind a print engraven in Holland. It represented a cow, the emblem of the Common-wealth, with the king of Spain on her back kicking and spurring her; the queen of England before, stopping and feeding her; the prince of Orange milking her; and the duke of Anjou behind pulling her back by the tail. Heylin's Cosmog. After the Spaniards, in a war of forty years, had spent an hundred millions of crowns, and had lost four hundred thousand men, they were forced to acknowledge the independence of the Dutch provinces, and conclude a peace with them: yet, strange to tell, another nation did not grow wise by this example.

6 While still the more he kick'd and spurr'd,

The less the sullen jade has stirr'd.] Mr. Butler had been witness to the refractory humour of the nation, not only under the weak government of Richard Cromwell, but in many instances under the more adroit and resolute management of Oliver. Both father and son have been compared to the riders of a restive horse by some loyal songsters: the following lines probably allude to Oliver :—

Nol, a rank rider, got fast in the saddle,

And made her shew tricks, and curvet and rebound:
She quickly perceived he rode widdle waddle,

And like his coach-horse threw his highness to ground.
Then Dick, being lame, rode holding the pummel,

Not having the wit to get hold of the rein:

But the jade did so snort at the sight of a Cromwell,

That poor Dick and his kindred turn'd footmen again. See the Collection of Loyal Songs, reprinted 1731, vol. ii. p. 281.

* This alludes to an accident that befel the Protector, Sept. 29, who must needs drive his coach himself: the horses ran away, and threw him amongst them, whereby he was in great danger.

}

t

PART I. CANTO II.

THE ARGUMENT.

The catalogue and character

Of th' enemies' best men of war,1
Whom, in a bold harangue, the Knight
Defies, and challenges to fight:

H' encounters Talgol, routs the Bear,
And takes the Fiddler prisoner,

Conveys him to enchanted castle,

There shuts him fast in wooden Bastile.

1 The catalogue and character

Of th' enemies' best men of war.] Butler's description of the combatants resembles the list of warriors in the Iliad and Æneid, and especially the laboured characters in the Theban war, both in Æschylus and Euripides. Septem ad Thebas, v. 383. Icetid. v. 362. Phoenis. v. 1139.