CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
335
And was believ'd, as well by saints
As moral men and miscreants,[1]
To founder in the Stygian ferry,
Until he was retriev'd by Sterry.[2] 220
Who, in a false erroneous dream,[3]
Mistook the New Jerusalem,
Profanely, for th' apocryphal
False heav'n at the end o' th' hall;
Whither it was decreed by fate
His precious reliques to translate.
So Romulus was seen before
B' as orthodox a senator,[4]
From whose divine Illumination
He stole the pagan revelation. 230
Next him his son, and heir apparent
Succeeded, tho' a lame vicegerent;[5]
Who first laid by the Parliament,
The only crutch on which he leant,
As moral men and miscreants,[1]
To founder in the Stygian ferry,
Until he was retriev'd by Sterry.[2] 220
Who, in a false erroneous dream,[3]
Mistook the New Jerusalem,
Profanely, for th' apocryphal
False heav'n at the end o' th' hall;
Whither it was decreed by fate
His precious reliques to translate.
So Romulus was seen before
B' as orthodox a senator,[4]
From whose divine Illumination
He stole the pagan revelation. 230
Next him his son, and heir apparent
Succeeded, tho' a lame vicegerent;[5]
Who first laid by the Parliament,
The only crutch on which he leant,
- ↑ Some editions read mortal, but not with so much meaning or wit. The Independents called themselves the saints: the Cavaliers and the Church of England were distinguished into two sorts; the immoral and wicked they called miscreants; those that were of sober and of good conversation, they called moral men; yet, because these last did not maintain the doctrine of absolute predestination and justification by faith only, but insisted upon the necessity of good works, they accounted them no better than moral heathens. By this opposition in terms between moral men and saints, the poet seems to insinuate, that the pretended saints were not men of morals.
- ↑ The king's party of course maintained that Oliver Cromwell was gone to the devil; but Sterry, one of Oliver's chaplains, assured the world of his ascent into heaven, and that he would be of more use to them there than he had been in his life-time.
- ↑ Sterry dreamed that Oliver was to be placed in heaven, which he foolishly imagined to be the true and real heaven above; but it happened to be the false carnal heaven at the end of Westminster Hall, where his head was fixed after the Restoration. There were, at that time, three taverns abutting on Westminster Hall, one called Heaven, another Hell, and the third Purgatory, near to the former of which Oliver's head was fixed.
- ↑ "Romulus, the first Roman king, being suddenly missed, and the people in trouble for the loss of him, Julius Proculus made a speech, wherein he told them that he saw Romulus that morning come down from heaven; that he gave him certain things in charge to tell them, and then he saw him mount up to heaven again." Livy's Roman Hist. vol. i. b. i.
- ↑ Richard Cromwell, the eldest son of Oliver, succeeded him in the protectorship; but had neither capacity nor courage sufficient for his position.
