Then peeping through, Blefs us ! (quoth he)
It is a planet, now, I fee;
Which none does hear but would have hung
T' have been the theme of fuch a fong.
Those two together long had liv'd,
In manfion prudently contriv'd,
Where neither tree nor houfe could bar
The free detection of a star;
And nigh an ancient obelisk
Was rais'd by him, found out by Fifk,
On which was written, not in words,
But hieroglyphic mute of birds,
Many rare pithy faws, concerning
The worth of aftrologic learning:
From top of this there hung a rope,
To which he faften'd te efcope,
The fpectacles with which the stars
He reads in falleft characters.
It happen'd as a boy, one night,
Did fly his tarfel of a kite,
And, if I err not, by this proper
400 Figure, that's like tobacco-stopper,
It should be Saturn: yes, 'tis clear
'Tis Saturn; but what makes him there?
He's got between the Dragon's tail
And farther leg behind o' th' Whale;
405 Pray heaven divert the fatal omen,
For 'tis a prodigy not common,"
And can no lefs than the world's end,
Or Nature's funeral, portend.
With that he fell again to pry,
The ftrangeft long-wing'd hawk that flies, 415
Thar, like a bird of Paradife,
Or herald's martlet, has no legs,
Nor hatches young ones, nor lays eggs;
His train was fix yards long, milk-white,
At th' end of which there hung a light,
Inclos'd in lantern made of paper,
That far off like a ftar did appear:
This Sidrophel by chance efpy'd,
And with amazement ftaring wide,
Blefs us! quoth he, what dreadful wonder
Is that appears in heaven yonder?
A comet, and without a beard!
Or ftar that ne'er before appear'd?
I'm certain 'tis not in the fcrowl
Of all those beasts, and fish, and fowl,
With which, like Indian plantations,
The learned stock the conftellations;
Nor thofe that drawn for figns have been
To th' houfes where the planets inn.
It must be fupernatural,
Unless it be that cannot-ball
That, thort i' th' air point-blank upright,
Was borne to that prodigious height
That, learn'd philofophers maintain,
It ne'er came backwards down again,
But in the airy region yet
Hangs, like the body of Mahomet ·
For if it be above the fhade
That by the earth's round bulk is made,
"Tis probable it may, from far,
Appear no bullet, but a ftar.
410 Through perspective, more wiftfully,
When, by mifchance, the fatal ftring,
That kept the towering fowl on wing,
Breaking, down fell the ftar. Well shot,
Quoth Whachum, who right wifely thought
He' ad level'd at a ftar, and hit it;
But Sidrophel, more fubtil-witted,
Cry'd out, What horrible and fearful
Portent is this, to fee a ftar fall?
It threatens Nature, and the doom
420 Will not be long before it come !
When ftars do fall, 'tis plain enough
The day of judgment's not far off:
As lately 'twas reveal'd to Sedgwick,
And fome of us find out by magick;
425 Then, fince the time we have to live
In this world 's fhorten'd, let us strive
To make our beft advantage of it,
And pay our loffes with our profit.
This feat fell out not long before
430 The Knight, upon the forenam'd score,
In queft of Sidrophel advancing,
Was now in profpect of the manfion;
Whom he difcovering, turned his glafs,
And found far off 'twas Hudibras.
Whachum (quoth he) look yonder, fome
To try or ufe our art are come.
The one's the learned Knight ;-feck out,
And pump them what they come about.
Whachum advanc'd, with all fubmifl'nefs
440 T'accoft them, but much more their business:
Ver. 477.] William Sedgwick, a whimfical enthufiaft, fometimes a Prefbyterian, fometimes an Independent, and at other times an Anabaptift; fometimes a prophet, and pretended to foretel things, out of the pulpit, to the deftruction of ignorant people; at other times pretended to revelations; and, upon pretence of a vifion that Doomiday was at hand, he retired to the house of Sir Francis Ruffel in Cambridgeshire; and, finding feveral gentlemen at bowls, called upon,them to prepare for their diffolution; telling them that he had lately received a revelation that doomfday would be fome day the week following. Upon which they ever after called him Doomday Sedg
Heheld a ftirrup, while the Knight
From leathern Bare-bones did alight;
And taking from his hand the bridle,
Approach'd, the dark Squire to unriddle.
He gave him firit the time o' th' day,
And welcond him, as he might fay:
He ak' him whence they came, and whither
Their business lay? Quoth Ralpho, Hither.
Did you not lofe Quoth Ralpho, Nay.
Quoth Whachum, Sir, I meant your way!
Your Knight, queth Ralpho, is a lover,
And pains intolerable doth fuffer;
For lovers' hearts are not their own hearts,
Nor lights, nor lungs, and fo forth downwards.
What time Quoth Ralpho, Sir too long,
Three years it off and on has hung.
Quota he, I meant what time o'the day tis:
Quoth Ralpho, between feven and eight 'tis.
Why then (quoth Whachum) my small art
Tells me the dame has a hard heart,
And for three years has rid your wit
And paffion, without drawing bit;
And now your business is to know
If you shall carry her or no.
Quoth Hudibras, You 're in the right,
But how the devil you came by 't
I can't imagine; for the stars
I'm fure, can tell no more than horse;
Nor can their afpects (though you pore
Your eyes out on them) tell you more
505 Than th' oracle of fieve and theers,
That turns as certain as the fpheres;
But if the devil's of your counsel,
Much may be done, my noble Donzel ;
And 'tis on this account I come,
To know from you my fatal doom.
Quoth Sidrophel, If you fuppofe,
Sir Knight, that I am one of those,
I might fufpect, and take th' alarm,
Your bufinefs is but to inform ;
But if it be, 'tis ne'er the near,
You have a wrong fow by the ear;
For I affure you, for my part,
I only deal by rules of art;
Such as are lawful, and judge by
520 Conclufion of astrology;
Or great estate.-Quotho Ralpha, A jointer, 515
Which makes him have fo hot a mind t' her,
Meanwhile the Knight was making water,
Before he fell upon the matter;
Which having done, the Wizard steps in,
To give him fuitable reception;
But kept his business at a bav,
Till Whachum put him in the way;
Who having now, by Ralpho's light,
Expounded th' errand of the Knight,
And what he came to know, drew near,
To whisper in the conjurer's ear;
Which he prevented thus: What was 't,
Quoth he, that I was faying laft,
Before thefe gentlemen arriv'd?
Your ip celations, which I hop'd
Affiilance from, and come to use,
'Tis fit that I ask your excufe.
By no means, Sir, quoth Sidrophel:
The ftars your coming did foretel;
I did expeći you here, and knew,
Before you fpake, your bufincis too.
Quoth Fudibras, make that appear,
And I fhall credit what foe'er
You tell me after, on your word,
Howe'er an'ikely or abfurd.
You are in love, Sir, with a widow,
Quoth he, that does not greatly heed you,
But for the devil know nothing by him,
But only this, that I defy him.
Quoth he, Whatever others deem ye,
I understand your metonymy;
Your words of fecond-hand intention,
When things by wrongful names you mention;
The mystic fenfe of all your terms,
That are indeed but magic charms
To raife the devil, and mean one thing,
And that is down-right conjuring;
And in itself more warrantable
Than cheat, or canting to a rabble,
Or putting tricks upon the moon,
Which by confederacy are done,
Your ancient conjurers were wont
To make her from her fphere difmount,
And to their incantation ftoop;
They fcorn'd to pore through telescope,
Or idly play at bo-peep with her,
To find out cloudy or fair weather,
Which every almanack can tell,
Perhaps as learnedly and well
As you youn felf.-Then, friend, I doubt
You go the fartheft way about:
Your modern Indian magician
Makes but a hole in th' earth to pifs in,
And straight refolves all queftions by 't,
And feldom fails to be i' th' right,
The Rofycrucian way's more fure
550 To bring the devil to the lure;
Each of them has a feveral gin,
To catch intelligences in.
Some by the nofe, with fumes' trepan them,
As Dunstan did the devil's grannam;
Ver. 618.] St. Dunstan was made Archbinog of Canterbury, anro 961, His skill in the libera
tere playing with him at bo-peep,
And as he eats his fons, juft fo
He feeds upon his daughters too.
Nor does it follow, 'caufe a herald
Can make a gentleman, fcarce a year old, 670
To be defcended of a race
Of ancient kings in a small space,
That we fhould all opinions hold
Authentic, that we can make old,
:foiv'd all problems ne'er fo deep. Tippa kept a Stygian pug,
th' garb and habit of a dog,
at was his tutor, and the cur
ad to th' occult philofopher,
id taught him fubtly to maintain
Lother fciences are vain.
this, quoth Sidrophello, Sir, Tippa was no conjurer,
r Paracelfus, no, nor Behmen;
r was the dog a cacodæmon,
ta true dog, that would fhew tricks
th' Emperor, and leap o'er sticks;
mid fetch and carry, was more civil
an other dogs, but yet no devil;
d whatfoe'er he's said to do,
went the felf-fame way we go.
for the Rofycrofs philofophers,
then you will have to be but forcerers,
hat they pretend to is no more
an Trifmegiftus did before,
agoras, old Zoroafter,
d Apollonius their master,
whom they do confefs they owe
I that they do, and all they know,
Quoth Sidrophel, It is no part Of prudence to cry down an art, And what it may perform deny, Because you understand not why; (As Averrhois play'd but a mean trick, 640 To damn our whole art for eccentric)
For who knows all that knowledge contains?
Men dwell not on the tops of mountains,
But on their fides, or rifing's feat;
So 'tis with knowledge's vait height.
645 Do not the hiftories of all ages
Relate miraculous prefages
Of ftrange turns, in the world's affairs,
Forefeen bo' aftrologers, foothfayers,
Chaldeans, learn'd Genethliacs,
650 And fome that have writ almanacks?
The Median Emperor dreamt his daughter
Had pift all Afia under water,
And that a vine, fprung from her haunches,
O'erfpread his empire with its branches;
655 And did not foothiayers expound it,
As after by th' event he found it?
When Cæfar in the fenate fell,
Did not the fun eclips'd foretell,
And, in refentment of his flaughter,
Look pale for almost a year after?
Auguftus having, by' overfight,
Put on his left fhoe 'fore his right,
$ and fciences (qualifications much above the of the age he lived in) gained him firft name of a Conjurer, and then of a Saint: he revered as fuch by the Romanists, who keep a Bday in honour of him, yearly, on the 19th of
Ver. 631.] This Kelly was chief feer, or as by calls him, Speculator to Dr. Dee; was born Worcester, and bred an apothecary, and was a proficient in chemistry, and pretended have the grand elixir, or philofopher's ftone, Bach Lilly tells us he made, or at leaft received dy-made, from a Friar in Germany, on the thes of the Emperor's dominions. He preded to fee apparitions in a cryftal or beryl ag-glais (or a round ftone like a cryftal). o, Palatine of Peland, Pucel a learned Flote, and Prince Romberg of Germany, the peror's Viceroy in Bohemia, were long of the Cety with him and Dr. Dee, and often prefent terapparitions, as was once the King of Pohimfelf: but Lilly obferves, that he was fo ked that the angels would not appear to him ngly, nor be obedient to him.
Ver. 669, 670.] Such gentry were Thomas Pury the elder, firft a weaver in Gloucester, then an ignorant folicitor. John Blackstone, a poor shop-keeper of Newcastle. John Birch, formerly a carrier, afterwards colonel. Richard Salway, colonel, formerly a grocer's man. Thomas Rainfborough, a skipper of Lynn, colone and vice-admiral of England. Colonel Tho-1 mas Scott, a brewer's clerk. Colonel Philip Skippon, originally a waggoner to Sir Francis Vere. Colonel John Jones, a ferving-man Colonel Barkstead, a pitiful thimble' and bodkin. goldfmith. Colonel Pride, a foundling and dray
Colonel Hewfon, a one-eyed cobler; and Colonel Harrifon, a butcher. These, and hundreds more, affected to be thought gentlemen, and lorded it over perfons of the first rank and quality.
been flain that day, Aving for pay. Ayriads of this fort,
of all times report?
nous in all countries,
A's and ravens croak upon trees? man fenate, when within
y walls an owl was feen,
aufe their clergy, with luftrations,
Ar Synod calls Humiliations)
ne round-fac'd prodigy t'avert from doing town or country hurt. And if an owl have fo much power,
Why should not planets have much more,
That in a region far above
Inferior fowls of the air move,
And thould fee further, and foreknow
More than their augury below?
Though that once ferv'd the polity
Of mighty ftates to govern by;
And this is what we take in hand By powerful art to understand;
Which, how we have perform'd, all ages
Can speak th' events of our prefages.
Have we not lately, in the moon,
Found a new world, to th' old unknown?
Discover'd fea and land Columbus
And Magellan could never compafs?
Made mountains with our tubes appear,
And cattle grazing on them there?
Quoth Hudibras, you lie fo ope,
That without a telescope,
Can find your tricks out, and defcry
Where you tell truth, and where you lye:
For Anaxagoras, long agone,
Saw hills, as well as you, i' th' moon,
And held the fun was but a piece
Of red-hot iron as big as Greece;
Believ'd the heavens were made of stone,
Because the fun had voided one;
And, rather than he would recant
Th' opinion, fuffer'd banishment.
But what, alas is it to us,
Whether i' th' moon men thus or thus
Do eat their porridge, cut their corns,
Or whether they have tails or horns?
What trade from thence can you advance,
But what we nearer have from France?
What can our travellers bring home,
That is not to be learned at Rome?
What politics, or ftrange opinions,
That are not in our own dominions?
What fcience can be brought from thence,
In which we do not here commence ?
What revelations, or religions,
That are not in our native regions?
Are fweating lanterns, or fcreen-fans,
Made better there than they're in France?
Or do they teach to fing and play
O' th' guitar there a newer way?
Can they make plays there, that fhall fit
The public humour with lefs wit?
Write wittier dances, quainter fhows,
Or fight with more ingenious blows?
Or does the man i' th' moon look big,
And wear a huger periwig?
705 Shew in his gait, er face, more tricks
Than our own native lunaticks?
But if we' outdo him here at home,
What good of your defign can come?
As wind i' th' hypocondres pent,
Is but a blaft if downward fent;
But if it upward chance to fly,
Becomes new-light and prophecy:
So when your speculations tend
Above their just and useful end,
715 Although they promise ftrange and great
Difcoveries of things far fet,
They are but idle dreams and fancies,
And favour ftrongly of the ganzas.
Tell me but what 's the natural caufe
720 Why on a fign no painter draws
The full-moon ever, but the half?
Refolve that with your Jacob's staff;
Or why wolves rale a hubbub at her,
And dogs howl when the shines in water?
And I fhall freely give my vote,
You may know fomething more remote.
At this deep Sidrophel look'd wife,
And staring round with owl-like eyes,
He put his face into a posture
730 Of fapience, and began to blufter;
For, having three times fhook his head
To ftir his wit up, thus he faid:
Art has no mortal enemies
Next ignorance, but owls and geefe;
735 Thofe confecrated geefe, in orders,
That to the capitol were warders,
And being then upon patrol,
With noife alone beat off the Gaul;
Or thofe Athenian fceptic owls,
740 That will not credit their own fouls,
Or any science understand,
Beyond the reach of eye or hand;
But, measuring all things by their own
Knowledge, hold nothing's to be known:
Thofe wholefale critics, that in coffee-
Houfes cry down all philofophy,
And will not know upon what ground
In Nature we our doctrine found,
Although with pregnant evidence
We can demonftrate it to fense,
As I juft now have done to you,
Foretelling what you came to know.
Were the ftars only made to light
Robbers and burglarers by night?
755 To wait on drunkards, thieves, gold-finders,
And lovers folacing behind doors,
Or giving one another pledges
Of matrimony under hedges?
Or witches fimpling, and on gibbets
760 Cutting from malefactors snippets?
Or from the pillory tips of ears
Of rebel-faints and perjurers?
Only to ftand by, and look on,
But not know what is faid or done?
Is there a constellation there
That was not born and bred up here;
As far as heaven 's above the earth.
Are fomething more fignificant
In fo many hundred thousand years; Befides their nonfenfe in tranflating, For want of Accidence and Latin, Like Idus, and Calendæ, Englisht
The Quarter-days, by fkilful linguist;
Thefe reafons (quoth the Knight) I grant
Than any that the learned ufe
Spon this fubject to produce;
And yet they're far from fatisfactory,
'eftablith and keep up your factory.
The Egyptians fay, the fun has twice
hifted his fetting and his rife ;
Twice has he rifen in the west,
is many times fet in the eaft;
But whether that be true or no,
The devil any of you know.
Some hold the heavens, like a top,
Are kept by circulation up,
And, were't not for their wheeling round hey'd inftantly fall to the ground;
is fage Empedocles of old,
and from him modern authors, hold.
lato believ'd the fun and moon
elow all other planets run.
one Mercury, fome Venus, feat
bove the Sun hinfelf in height.
he learned Scaliger complain'd
Sainft what Copernicus maintain'd,
hat, in twelve hundred years and odd,
he fun had left its ancient road.
nd nearer to the earth is come,
love fifty thousand miles from home;
wore'twas a most notorious flam,
nd he that had fo little fhame
o vent fuch fopperies abroad,
eferv'd to have his rump well claw'd;
Ver. 873. And were 't not.] And 'twere not in the ur first editions. Altered in edit. 1689.
The tender infant did infect
Ver. 894. He knew lefs, &c.] He knew no more &c. two first editions 1664.
Ver. 916.] This and the three following lines inferted 1674. In the first editions of 1664, they ftand thus:
Some fay the stars i' th' Zodiack,
Are more than a whole fign gone back
Since Ptolemy; and prove the fame
In Taurus now, then in the Ram.
And yet, with canting, fleight, and cheat,
'Twill ferve their turn to do the feat;
Make fools believe in their foreseeing
Of things before they are in being;
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