From heavy squelch, and had got up
Upon his legs, with sprained crup,
Looking about beheld the bard935
To charge the Knight entranc'd prepar'd,[1]
He snatch'd his whinyard up, that fled
When he was falling off his steed,
As rats do from a falling house,
To hide itself from rage of blows;940
And wing'd with speed and fury, flew
To rescue Knight from black and blue.
Which ere he could achieve, his sconce
The leg encounter'd twice and once;[2]
And now 'twas rais'd, to smite agen,945
When Ralpho thrust himself between;
He took the blow upon his arm,
To shield the Knight from further harm;
And joining wrath with force, bestow'd
O' th' wooden member such a load,950
That down it fell, and with it bore
Crowdero, whom it propp'd before.
To him the Squire right nimbly run,
And setting conqu'ring foot upon
His trunk, thus spoke: What desp'rate frenzy955
Made thee, thou whelp of sin, to fancy
Thyself, and all that coward rabble,
T' encounter us in battle able?
How durst th', I say, oppose thy curship
'Gainst arms, authority, and worship,960
And Hudibras or me provoke,
Though all thy limbs were heart of oak,
And th' other half of thee as good
To bear our[3] blows as that of wood?
Could not the whipping-post prevail,965
With all its rhet'ric, nor the jail,
- ↑ Var.Looking about, beheld pernicion
Approaching Knight from fell musician. - ↑ A ridicule of the poetical way of expressing numbers. It occurs in Shakspeare. Thus Justice Silence, in Henry IV. Act v. "Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now." And the witch in Macbeth, Act v. "Twice and once the hedge pig whined."
- ↑ "Out," is the usual reading; but the first edition has "our," which seems preferable.
