Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/101

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
CANTO I.]
HUDIBRAS.
277
For when there is that intercourse
Between divine and human pow'rs,
That all that we determine here 225
Commands obedience ev'rywhere;[1]
When penalties may be commuted[2]
For fines, or ears, and executed,
It follows, nothing binds so fast
As souls in pawn and mortgage past: 230
For oaths are th' only tests and scales[3]
Of right and wrong, and true and false;
And there's no other way to try
The doubts of law and justice by.
Quoth she, What is it you would swear? 235
There's no believing 'till I hear:
For, 'till they're understood, all tales,
Like nonsense, are not true nor false.
Quoth he, When I resolv'd t'obey
What you commanded th' other day, 240
And to perform my exercise,
As schools are wont, for your fair eyes;
T' avoid all scruples in the case,
I went to do't upon the place;
But as the castle is enchanted 245
By Sidrophel the witch, and haunted
With evil spirits, as you know,
Who took my Squire and me for two,[4]
Before I'd hardly time to lay
My weapons by, and disarray, 250
I heard a formidable noise,
Loud as the Stentrophonic voice,[5]
That roar'd far off. Dispatch and strip,
I'm ready with th' infernal whip,
That shall divest thy ribs of skin, 255
To expiate thy ling'ring sin;

  1. The reference is to the text:—"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven." Matthew xviii. 13.
  2. The Knight argues that, since temporal punishments may be mitigated and commuted, the best securities for truth and honesty are such oaths as his.
  3. Var. Seals in edition of 1678.
  4. For two evil and delinquent spirits.
  5. Sir Samuel Morland's speaking trumpet was so called after Homer's far-famed brazen-tongued Stentor. See Iliad, v. 785.