notion in Butler's time, that ant eggs were strong provocatives, and they were prescribed medicinally for the same purposes as cantharides.

V. 328-9. That old Pyg-(what d'y' call him)-malion,

That cut his mistress out of stone.] Pygmalion, the son of Cilex, according to the heathen mythology, fell in love with a marble statue of his own workmanship, which Venus, at his entreaty, turning into a young woman, he begot of her Paphus. Their amour is thus spoken of in Ovid's Metamorphoses;

"The Cyprian prince, with joy-expressing words,

To pleasure-giving Venus thanks affords.
His lips to her's he joins, which seem to melt;
The virgin blushing, now his kisses felt,
And fearfully erecting her fair eyes,
Together with the light, her lover spies.
Venus the marriage bless'd which she had made,
And when nine crescents had at full display'd
Their joining horns, replete with borrow'd flame,
She Paphus bore, who gave that isle a name."
V. 343-4. He that gets her by heart must say her,

The back way, like a witch's prayer.] The Spectator, No. 61, speaking of an epigram called the Witch's Prayer, says, "it fell into verse when it was read either backwards or forwards, excepting only that it cursed one way, and blessed another."

V. 348. Her ignorance is his devotion.] Alluding to the doctrine of the Romish church, that ignorance is the mother of devotion. V. 349-50. Like caitiff vile that for misdeed

Rides with his face to rump of steed.] A mode of punishment common in Spain and other countries. But Butler probably meant here, more particularly, to allude to the punishment of Robert Ward, Thomas Watson, Simon Graunt, George Jellis, and William Sawyer, members of the army, who, upon the 6th of March, 1648, in the New Palace-yard, Westminster, were forced to ride with their faces towards their horses' tails, had their swords broken over their heads, and were cashiered, for petitioning the Rump for relief of the oppressed commonwealth.

A door to discontinu'd hope.] "A canting phrase (says

Warburton) used by the sectaries when they entered on any new mischief."

V. 395. Fortune th' audacious doth juvare.] Alluding to the passage in Terence's Phormio," Fortes fortuna adjuvat," fortune favours the bold.

V. 403-4. And as an owl that in a barn

Sees a mouse creeping in the corn.] This simile should not pass by unregarded, because it is both just and natural. The Knight's present case is not much different from the owl's; their figures are equally ludicrous, and they seem to be pretty much in the same design: if the Knight's mouth waters at the widow, so does the owl's at the mouse; and the Knight starts up with as much briskness at the widow, as the owl does to secure his prey. This simile, therefore, exactly answers the business of one, which is to illustrate one thing by comparing it with another. If it be objected that it is drawu from a low subject, it may be replied, that similes are not always to be drawu from noble and lofty themes; for, if they were, how would those similes of boys surrounding an ass in Homer, Iliad XI. and of whipping a top in Virgil, Æn. VII. be defended. If such are allowable in epic poetry, how much more are they in burlesque. In Phillips' Splendid Shilling there is a happy imitation of this simile:

66

V. 422.

place.

So poets sing

Grimalkin, to domestic vermin sworn
An everlasting foe, with watchful eye,
Lies nightly brooding o'er a chinky gap

Protending her fell claws, to thoughtless mice
Sure ruin.-

"

onslaught.] A storming or fierce attack upon a

Protuldy, a "It appears

V. 445. The foe appear'd, drawn up and drill'd.] In Beaumont and Fletcher's tragedy of Thierry, King of France, coward, speaking of his soldiers to the King, says, they have been drilled, nay, very prettily drilled; for many of them can discharge their musquets without the danger of throwing off their heads."

V. 477-8. This said, his courage to inflame,

He call'd upon his mistress' name.] This was accord

ing to the practice of Don Quixote, who, whenever he was about to engage in any adventure, always recommended himself to his mistress, as, when he was going to encounter the Biscayan, he cried out aloud, "O lady of my soul, Dulcinea, flower of all beauty, vouchsafe to succour your champion in this dangerous combat, undertaken to set forth your worth!"

V. 493-4. As that which Diomed did maul

Eneas on the bum withal.] Here is another evidence of that air of truth and probability which is kept up by Butler throughout this poem; he would by no means have his readers fancy the same strength and activity in Orsin which Homer ascribes to Diomed; for which reason he alludes to the following passage, Iliad V. 1. 304, &c.

"Then fierce Tydides stoops, and from the fields

Heav'd with vast force, a rocky fragment wields;

Not two strong men th' enormous weight could raise,
Such men as live in these degen'rate days.

He swung it round, and gathering strength to throw,
Discharg❜d the pond'rous ruin at the foe;
Where to the hip the inserted thigh unites,

Full on the bone the pointed marble lights,
Through both the tendons broke the rugged stone,
And stripp'd the skin, and crack'd the solid bone;
Sunk on his knees, and stagg'ring with his pains,
His falling bulk his bended arm sustains;

Lost in a dirty mist the warrior lies,

A sudden cloud comes swimming o'er his eyes." V. 498.

saints twice dipp'd, &c.] These were the Anabaptists, some of whom, not satisfied with being dipped once, had the ceremony performed upon them a second time.

V. 509-10. But prudently forbore to fire,

Till breast to breast he had got nigher.] Butler is supposed here to allude to Oliver Cromwell's prudent management in this respect, who seldom suffered his soldiers to fire till they were near enough to do execution upon the enemy.

At random 'mong the enemy.] Our Knight's pistol

1

was out of order, as has been before observed; and it is certain that he was not so expert a marksman as the Scotch Douglas, whom the Prince of Wales, in Shakespeare's Henry IV. calls, "He that rides at high speed, and with a pistol kills a sparrow flying;" or Prince Rupert, who at Stafford, in the time of the rebellion, standing in Captain Richard Sneyd's garden, at about sixty yards distance, made a shot at the weather-cock upon the steeple of the collegiate church of St. Mary, with a screwed horsepistol, and single bullet, which pierced its tail, the hole plainly appearing to all that were below; which the King presently judging as a casualty only, the Prince presently proved the contrary by a second shot to the same effect.-Plot's Staffordshire.

V. 535.

gaberdine, &c.] A word often used by romance writers, which signifies a coarse frock or coat. Shylock, the Jew, speaking to Antonio, says,

"You call'd me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,

And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,

And all for us of that which is my own."

V. 537. Lodg'd in Mugnano's brass habergeon.] A little coat of mail, or only sleeves and gorget of mail.

V. 569-70. For if but half so well you knew

To use your victory as subdue.] This is meant as a stroke upon the character of Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles I. who was a commander of great bravery, but his impetuosity often carried him farther than prudence allowed. At the battle of Marston Moor, the wing of the royal army which he commanded charged General Fairfax's forces with so much fury and resolution, that he broke them and the Scotch reserve; but pursuing them too far, the enemy in their turn rallied, and throwing his troops into confusion, retrieved the fortunes of the day.

V. 573-4. But from so formidable a soldier

"If

Had fled, like crows when they smell powder.] Dr. Plot seems to have been of opinion, that crows smell powder at some distance. In his Natural History of Oxfordshire, he says, crows are towards harvest any thing mischievous, destroying the corn in the outward limits of the fields, they dig a hole, narrow at the bottom, and broad at the top, in the green swarth near the

corn, wherein they put dust and cinders, mixed with a little gunpowder, and about the holes stick crows' feathers, which they find about Burton to have good success."

V. 617. As a mun may say, &c.] A sneer upon those persons who are copious in the use of expletives, such as this here, that there, &c. in common conversation. Mr. Gayton, in banter of Sancho Panza's expletives, (see his Notes upon Don Quixote,) produces a remarkable instance of a reverend judge who was to give a charge at an assize, which was performed with great gravity, had it not been interlarded with in that kind: as, "Gentlemen of the jury, you ought to inquire after recusants in that kind, and such as do not frequent the church in that kind; but, above all, such as haunt alehouses in that kind, notorious whoremasters in that kind, drunkards and blasphemers in that kind, and all notorious offenders in that kind, are to be presented in that kind, and, as the laws in that kind direct, must be proceeded against in that kind."-A gentleman being asked, after the court rose, how he liked the judge's charge? answered, that it was the best of that kind that he ever heard.

V. 638. - and happy man be's dole.] Shakespeare often uses this expression; as Slender, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, speaking to Mrs. Ann Page, says, "Truly, for my own part, I would little or nothing with you; your father and my uncle have made motions; if it be my luck, so; if not, happy man's be's dole."

V. 651-2. Bearing the tough Squire, like a sack,

Or stout King Richard, on his back.] Alluding to the treatment of the dead body of Richard III. after the battle of Bosworth. Echard, speaking of it, says, "his body was carried to Leicester in a most ignominious manner, like a slain deer, laid across his horse's back, his head and arms hanging on one side, and his legs on the other, stark naked, and besmeared with blood, mire, and dirt."-The brave Prince of Condé, who was killed at the battle of Brissac, was used by the Catholics in as ignominious a manner, they carrying his body in inglorions triumph upon a poor packhorse.

At th' wound that Cerdon had receiv'd.] Dr. Grey, in