Page:Hudibras - Volume 2 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/265

Beside, our bangs of man and beast 235
Are fit for nothing but to rest,
And for a while will not be able
To rally, and prove serviceable:
And therefore I, with reason, chose
This stratagem t' amuse our foes, 240
To make an hon'rable retreat,
And wave a total sure defeat:
For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.^[1]

1. The parallel to these lines is contained in the famous couplet"—
   "He that fights and runs away,
   May live to fight another day,"
   
   
   which is so commonly, but falsely, attributed to Butler, that many bets have been lost upon it. The sentiment appears to be as old as Demosthenes, who, being reproached for running away from Philip of Macedon, at the battle of Chæronea, replied, Άνὴρ ὁ φεύγων καὶ παλιν μάχήσεται. This saying of Demosthenes is mentioned by Jeremy Taylor, who says, "In other cases it is true that Demosthenes said in apology for his own escaping from a lost field—A man that runs away may fight again."—Great Examples, 1649. The same idea is found in Scarron, who died in 1660:
   Qui fuit, peut revenir aussi;
   Qui meurt, il n'en est pas ainsi.
   
   
   It is also found in the Satyre Menippée, published in 1594:
   Souvent eeluy qui demeure
   Est cause de son meschef:
   Celuy qui fuit de bonne heure
   Peut combattre derechef.
   
   
   Thus rendered in an English version, published in 1595:
   Oft he that doth abide
   Is cause of his own pain;
   But he that flieth in good tide
   Perhaps may fight again.
   
   
   In the Latin Apothegms compiled by Erasmus, and translated into English by Nicholas Udall, in 1542, occur the following lines, which are obviously a metrical version of the saying of Demosthenes:
   That same man that renneth awaie,
   Maie again fight, an other daie.
   
   
   The Italians are supposed to have borrowed their proverb from the same source: E meglio che si dici qui fuggi che qui mori, Better it be said here he ran away than here he died. But our familiar couplet was no doubt derived from the following lines, which were written by Sir John Mennis, in conjunction with James Smith, in the Musarum Deliciæ, a collection of