And sometimes catch them with a snap, As cleverly as th' ablest trap. are made up reciprocally of the Squire and Knight themselves, as may be seen in figs. 3 and 8; the various other dramatis persona, with whom the reader will become better acquainted in the next Canto, are evidences likewise of the truth of those remarks. They were upon hard duty still, And ev'ry night stood sentinel, To guard the magazine i' th' hose From two-legg'd and from four-legg'd foes. 400 405 4.10 But, after many strains and heaves, He got up to the saddle-eaves; From whence he vaulted into th' seat, With so much vigour, strength, and heat, That he had almost tumbled over 415 With his own weight; but did recover, By laying hold on tail and mane, Which oft he us'd instead of rein. 420 It doth behove us to say something Of that which bore our valiant bumpkin. 425 He was well stay'd, and in his gate At spur or switch no more he skipp'd, Or mended pace, than Spaniard whipp'd: 430 As if he griev'd to touch the ground: We shall not need to say what lack 441 Of leather was upon his back; For that was hidden under pad, And breech of knight gall'd full as bad. With arm'd heel, or with unarm'd kick'd: As wisely knowing, could he stir 445 450 453. The spur that arms one of the knight's heels, I take to be the light between the shadows which constitute his two feet; its rowel is near the right eye of the owl, and it appears to be on the off-side foot. The other foot is situate, apparently, behind it, and without a spur. It would be a waste of time to go into a minute description of these minor circumstances: and when once the To active trot one side of's horse, The other would not hang an arse. A squire he had, whose name was Ralph, 455 460 reader has become satisfied that the prototypes of the several characters of the Poem are rightly assigned, it will be a source of amusement to him to trace out those minutiæ for himself, of which there are multitudes which I omit to notice; in fact, he would scarcely fail to discover something new and pleasing on every repeated perusal. 457. If I have above given the origin of Hudibras's name, that of the name of Ralph, or Ralpho, may be assigned no less satisfactorily, though not so obviously: the letters which constitute it may, in fact, be seen (in light) within the sphere of the Squire's person in the moon, such as they are represented in And when we can with metre safe, (For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses,) He had laid in, by birth a tailor. The mighty Tyrian queen, that gain'd Did leave it, with a castle fair, To his great ancestor, her heir: From him descended cross-legg'd knights, Whom they destroy'd, both great and small. and developed in Fig. 10. 465 470 475 RALP ΑΦΟ the Greek having the same power in pronunciation as P the letter F, and the strokes of the letter L being intermixed with those of the 4. The Squire would seem to be |