He on his hams, or on his brawny rump
Sliding secure, derides their vain distress.
Up starts the vig'rous Hobb'nol undismay'd,
From mother Earth like old Antæus rais'd,
With might redoubled. Clamour and applause
Shake all the neighbouring hills, Avona's banks
Return him loud acclaim: with ardent eyes,
Fierce as a tiger rushing from his lair,
He grasp'd the wrist of his insulting foe.
Then with quick wheel oblique, his shoulder-point
Beneath his breast he fix'd, and whirl'd aloft
High o'er his head the sprawling youth he flung:
The hollow ground rebellow'd as he fell.
The crowd press forward with tumultuous din ;
Those to relieve their faint expiring friend,
With gratulations these: hands, tongues, and caps,
Outrageous joy proclaim, shrill fiddles squeak,
Hoarse bag-pipes roar, and Ganderetta smiles.
The fray.-Tonsorio, Colin, Hildebrand, Cuddy, Cindaraxa, Talgol, Avaro, Cubbin, Collakin, Mundungo.-Sir Rhadamanth the justice, attended with his guards, comes to quell the fray.-Rhadamanth's speech.-Tumult appeas'd. -Gorgonius the butcher takes up the hilts, his character. -The Kiftsgatians' consternation, look wistfully on Hobbinol; his speech. The cudgel-playing. - Gorgonius knocked down, falls upon Twangdillo; his distress; his lamentation over his broken fiddle.
LONG while an universal hubbub loud,
Deafening each ear, had drown'd each accent mild;
Till biting taunts, and harsh opprobrious words
Vile utterance found. How weak are human minds!
How impotent to stem the swelling tide,
And without insolence enjoy success!
The vale-inhabitants, proud, and elate
With victory, know no restraint, but give
A loose to joy. Their champion Hobbinol
Vaunting they raise, above that earth-born race
Of giants old, who piling hills on hills,
Pelion on Ossa, with rebellious aim
Made war on Jove. The sturdy mountaineers,
Who saw their mightiest fall'n, and in his fall
Their honours past impair'd, their trophies, won
By their proud fathers, who with scorn look'd down
Upon the subject vale, sullied, despoil'd,
And levell'd with the dust, no longer bear
The keen reproach. But as when sudden fire
Seizes the ripen'd grain, whose bending ears
Invite the reaper's hand, the furious god
In sooty triumph rides dreadful, upborne
On wings of wind, that with destructive breath Feed the fierce flames, from ridge to ridge he bounds Wide-wasting, and pernicious ruin spreads:
So through the crowd from breast to breast swift flew
The propagated rage; loud vollied oaths,
Like thunder bursting from a cloud, gave signs
Of wrath awak'd. Prompt fury soon supplied
With arms uncouth; tough well-season'd plants,
Weighty with lead infus'd, on either host
Fall thick, and heavy; stools in pieces rent,
And chairs, and forms, and batter'd bowls are hurl'd
With fell intent; like bombs the bottles fly
Hissing in air, their sharp-edg'd fragments drench'd
In the warm spouting gore; heaps driven on heaps
Promiscuous lie. Tonsorio now advanc'd
On the rough edge of battle: his broad front
Beneath his shining helm secure, as erst
Was thine, Mambrino, stout Iberian knight!*
Defied the rattling storm, that on his head
Fell innocent. A table's ragged frame
In his right hand he bore, Herculean club!
Crowds, push'd on crowds, before his potent arm
Fled ignominious; havoc, and dismay,
Hung on their rear. Colin, a merry swain,
Blithe as the soaring lark, as sweet the strains
Of his soft-warbling lips, that whistling cheer
His labouring team, they toss their heads well pleas'd,
In gaudy plumage deck'd, with stern disdain
Beheld this victor proud; his generous soul
Brook'd not the foul disgrace. High o'er his head
His ponderous plough-staff in both hands he rais'd;
Erect he stood, and stretching every nerve,
As from a forceful engine, down it fell
Upon his hollow'd helm, that yielding sunk
Beneath the blow, and with its sharpen'd edge
Shear'd both his ears, they on his shoulders broad
Hung ragged. Quick as thought the vigorous youth
Shortening his staff, the other end he darts
Into his gaping jaws. Tonsorio fled
Sore maim'd; with pounded teeth and clotted gore
Half-chok'd, he fled; with him the host retir'd
Companions of his shame; all but the stout,
And erst unconquer'd Hildebrand, brave man!
Bold champion of the hills! thy weighty blows
Our fathers felt dismay'd; to keep thy post
Unmov'd, whilom thy valour's choice, now sad
Necessity compels; decrepit now
With age, and stiff with honourable wounds,
He stands unterrified; one crutch sustains
His frame majestic, the' other in his hand
He wields tremendous; like a mountain boar
In toils enclos'd, he dares his circling foes.
They shrink aloof, or soon with shame repent
The rash assault, the rustic heroes fall
In heaps around. Cuddy, a dextrous youth,
When force was vain, on fraudful art rely'd:
Close to the ground low-cowering, unperceiv'd,
Cautious he crept, and with his crooked bill
Cut sheer the frail support, prop of his age:
Reeling a while he stood, and menac'd fierce
The' insidious swain, reluctant now at length
Fell prone and plough'd the dust. So the tall oak,
Old monarch of the groves, that long had stood
The shock of warring winds, and the red bolts
Of angry Jove, shorn of his leafy shade
At last, and inwardly decay'd, if chance
The cruel woodman spy the friendly spur,
His only hold; that sever'd, soon he nods,
And shakes the' incumber'd mountain as he falls.
When manly valour fail'd, a female arm
Restor❜d the fight. As in the' adjacent booth
Black Cindaraxa's busy hand prepar'd
The smoky viands, she beheld, abash'd,
The routed host, and all her dastard friends
Far scatter'd o'er the plain; their shameful flight
Griev'd her proud heart, for hurried with the stream
Ev'n Talgol too had fled, her darling boy.
A flaming brand from off the glowing hearth
The greasy heroine snatch'd; o'er her pale foes
The threatening meteor shone, brandish'd in air,
Or round their heads in ruddy circles play'd.
Across the prostrate Hildebrand she strode,
Dreadfully bright: the multitude appall'd
Fled different ways, their beards, their hair in flames.
Imprudent she pursued, till on the brink
Of the next pool, with force united press'd,
And waving round with huge two-handed sway
Her blazing arms, into the muddy lake
The bold virago fell. Dire was the fray
Between the warring elements, of old
Thus Mulciber, and Xanthus Dardan stream
In hideous battle join'd. Just sinking now
Into the boiling deep, with suppliant hands,
She begg'd for life; black ooze and filth obscene
Hung in her matted hair; the shouting crowd
Insult her woes, and proud of their success,
The dripping Amazon in triumph lead.
Now, like a gathering storm, the rallied troops
Blacken'd the plain. Young Talgol from their tront,
With a fond lover's haste, swift as the hind,
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