Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/161

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PART I.CANTO III.

ARGUMENT.[1]

The scatter'd rout return and rally,
Surround the place; the Knight does sally,
And is made pris'ner: then they seize
Th' enchanted fort by storm, release
Crowdero, and put the Squire in's place:
I should have first said Hudibras.

  1. The Author follows the example of Spenser, and the Italian poets, in the division of his work into parts and cantos. Spenser contents himself with a quatrain at the head of each canto; Butler more fully informs his readers what they are to expect, by an argument in the same style with the poem; and shows that he knew how to enliven so dry a thing as a summary.