Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/246

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158
HUDIBRAS.
[PART II.

Some with Arabian spices strive 595
T' embalm her cruelly alive;
Or season her, as French cooks use
Their haut-gouts, bouillies, or ragouts;[1]
Use her so barbarously ill,
To grind her lips upon a mill,[2]600
Until the facet doublet doth[3]
Fit their rhymes rather than her mouth;[4]
Her mouth compar'd t' an oyster's, with
A row of pearl in't, 'stead of teeth;
Others make posies of her cheeks,605
Where red and whitest colours mix;
In which the lily and the rose,
For Indian lake and ceruse goes.[5]
The sun and moon, by her bright eyes,
Eclips'd and darken'd in the skies;610
Are but black patches that she wears,
Cut into suns, and moons, and stars,[6]
By which astrologers, as well
As those in heav'n above, can tell
What strange events they do foreshow,615
Unto her under-world below.[7]

  1. Till the edition of 1704, this Hue stood:
    Their haut-gusts, buollies, or ragusts.
    These things were "made-dishes," and were all highly flavoured, and hot with spices.
  2. As they do by comparing her lips to rubies, which are polished by a mill.
  3. Facet, a little face, or small surface. Diamonds and precious stones are ground à la facette, or with many faces or small surfaces, that they may have the greater lustre. A doublet is a false stone, made of two crystals joined together with green or red cement between them, in order to resemble stones of that colour. Facet doublet, therefore, is a false stone cut in faces.
  4. See Don Quixote, ch. 73 and ch. 38; also the description of "a Whore," by John Taylor, the water poet, for other satires on this fantastic habit of lovers.
  5. These are the names of two pigments, the former crimson; the latter a preparation of white lead and vinegar.
  6. The ladies formerly were very fond of wearing a great number of black patches on their faces, often cut in fantastical shapes. See Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, p. 252, &c.; Spectator, No. 50; and Beaumont and Fletcher's "Elder Brother," Act iii. sc. II.
  7. A double entendre. This and the three preceding lines do not appear in the editions of 1664, but were added in 1674.