Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/269

Quoth Hudibras, I understand
What fights thou mean'st at sea and land,
And who those were that run away,
And yet gave out they 'd won the day: 310
Altho' the rabble sous'd them for 't,
O'er head and ears, in mud and dirt.
'Tis true our modern way of war
Is grown more politic by far,^[1]
But not so resolute and bold, 315
Nor tied to honour, as the old.
For now they laugh at giving battle,
Unless it be to herds of cattle;
Or fighting convoys of provision,
The whole design o' th' expedition, 320
And not with downright blows to rout
The enemy, but eat them out:
As fighting, in all beasts of prey,
And eating, are perform'd one way,
To give defiance to their teeth, 325
And fight their stubborn guts^[2] to death;

was neglected after the battle of Roundway-down, called by the wits Runaway-down.

1. Butler's unpublished Common-place Book has the following lines on "The modern way of war."
   For fighting now is out of mode,
   And stratagem's the only road;
   Unless in th' out-of-fashion wars,
   Of barb'rous Turks and Polanders.
   All feats of arms are now reduc'd
   To chousing, or to being chous'd;
   They fight not now to overthrow,
   But gull, or circumvent a foe.
   And watch all small advantages
   As if they fought a game at chess;.
   And he's approv'd the most deserving
   Who longest can hold out at starving.
   Who makes best fricasees of cats,
   Of frogs and ———, and mice and rats;
   Pottage of vermin, and ragoos
   Of trunks and boxes, and old shoes.
   And those who, like th' immortal gods,
   Do never eat, have still the odds.
   
   
2. Later editions read, the others' stomachs.