Which makes him have so strong a breath,755
Each night he stinks a queen to death;
Yet I shall rather lie in's arms
Than your's, on any other terms.
Quoth he, What nature can afford
I shall produce, upon my word;760
And if she ever gave that boon
To man, I'll prove that I have one;
I mean, by postulate illation,[1]
When you shall offer just occasion;
But since ye've yet denied to give765
My heart, your pris'ner, a reprieve,
But make it sink down to my heel,
Let that at least your pity feel;
And for the sufferings of your martyr,
Give its poor entertainer quarter;770
And by discharge, or mainprise, grant
Deliv'ry from this base restraint.[2]
Quoth she, I grieve to see your leg
8tuck in a hole here like a peg,
And if I knew which way to do't,775
Tour honour safe. I'd let you out.
That dames by jail-delivery
Of errant knights have been set free,[3]
When by enchantment they have been.
And sometimes for it too, laid in,780
Is that which knights are bound to do
By order, oaths, and honour too;
- ↑ That is, by inference, consequence, or presumptive evidence.
- ↑ Grey supposes that the usher, who attended the widow, might be the constable of the place, and that on that account Hudibras begged her to release him; but it is more probable that she was of sufficient consideration to obtain his liberation, either absolutely, or on bail; or that she could order her said usher to open the stocks and set him free.
- ↑ These and the following lines are a banter upon romance writers. Our author keeps Don Quixote (Gayton's translation) constantly in his eye, when he is aiming at this object. In Europe, the Spaniards and the French engaged first in this kind of writing: from them it was communicated to the English.
ly to have saturated his breath, that contact with him caused the death of 4000 concubines. Philosoph. Transactions, lxvi. 314. Montaigne, b. i. Essay on Customs. A gross double entendre runs through the whole of the widow's speeches, and likewise through those of the knight. See T. Warton on English Poetry, iii. p. 10.
