That lays foundation for renown, 815
And all the honours of the gown.
This suffer'd, they are set at large,
And freed with hon'rable discharge;
Then, in their robes, the penitentials
Are straight presented with credentials,[1]820
And in their way attended on
By magistrates of every town;
And, all respect and charges paid,
They're to their ancient seats convey'd.
Now if you'll venture for my sake,825
To try the toughness of your back,
And suffer, as the rest have done,
The laying of a whipping on,[2]
And may you prosper in your suit,
As you with equal vigour do't,830
I here engage myself to loose ye
And free your heels from caperdewsie:[3]
But since our sex's modesty
Will not allow I should be by.
Bring me, on oath, a fair account, 835
And honour too, when you have done't:
And I'll admit you to the place
You claim as due in my good grace.
If matrimony and hanging go[4]
By dest'ny, why not whipping too? 840
What med'cine else can cure the fits
Of lovers, when they lose their wits?
Love is a boy by poets styl'd.
Then spare the rod, and spoil the child:
- ↑ This alludes to the Acts of Parliament, 33 Eliz. cap. 4, and 1 James I. c. 31, whereby vagrants were ordered to be whipped, and, with a certificate of the fact, conveyed by constables to the place of their settlement.
- ↑ A reference to the Amatorial Flagellants of Spain; no other way to move the hearts of their ladies being left them, they borrowed the ascetic's scourge, and used it.
- ↑ From 1674 to 1700, these lines stood:
I here engage to be your bail.
And free you from th' unknightly jail.
The etymology of caperdewsie, evidently a term for the stocks, is unknown. - ↑ Hanging and wiving go by destiny. Handbook of Proverbs, p. 367.
