For my part, it shall ne'er be said255
I for the washing gave my head:[1]
Nor did I turn my back for fear
O' th' rascals, but loss of my bear,[2]
Which now I'm like to undergo;
For whether these fell wounds, or no,260
He has received in fight, are mortal,
Is more than all my skill can foretel;
Nor do I know what is become
Of him, more than the Pope of Rome,[3]
But if I can but find them out265
That caused it, as I shall no doubt,
Where'er th' in hugger-mugger lurk,[4]
I'll make them rue their handiwork,
And wish that they had rather dar'd
To pull the devil by the beard.[5]270
Quoth Cerdon, noble Orsin, th' hast
Great reason to do as thou say'st,
And so has ev'rybody here,
As well as thou hast, or thy bear:
Others may do as they see good;275
But if this twig be made of wood
That will hold tack, I'll make the fur
Fly 'bout the ears of the old cur,
- ↑ That is, behaved cowardly, or surrendered at discretion: jeering obliquely perhaps at the anabaptistical notions of Ralpho. Hooker, or Vowler, in his description of Exeter, written about 1584, speaking of the parson of St Thomas, who was hanged during the siege, says, "he was a stout man, who would not give his head for the polling, nor his beard for the washing." Grey gives the following quotation from Beaumont and Fletcher, Cupid's Revenge, Act iv. "1st Citizen. It holds, he dies this morning. 2nd Citizen. Then happy man be his fortune. 1st Citizen. And so am I and forty more good fellows, that will not give their heads for the washing."
- ↑ Var. Of them, but losing of my bear. In all editions between 1674 and 1704.
- ↑ This common saying is a sneer at the Pope's infallibility.
- ↑ The confusion or want of order occasioned by haste and secrecy.
and we have done but greenly
In hugger-mugger to inter him.
Hamlet, iv. 5. See also Wright's Glossary. - ↑ A proverbial expression used for any bold or daring enterprise: so we say, To take a lion by the beard. The Spaniards deemed it the most unpardonable of affronts to be pulled by the beard, and would resent it at the hazard of life.
