Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/224

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140
HUDIBRAS.
[PART II.

For as he sat upon his rump,105
His head like one in doleful dump,[1]
Between his knees, his hands applied
Unto his ears on either side.
And by him, in another hole,
Afflicted Ralpho, cheek by joul.[2]110
She came upon him in his wooden
Magician's circle, on the sudden,
As spirits do t' a conjurer,
When in their dreadful'st shapes th' appear.
No sooner did the Knight perceive her,115
But straight he fell into a fever,
Inflam'd all over with disgrace,
To b' seen by her in such a place;
Which made him hang his head, and scowl
And wink and goggle like an owl;120
He felt his brains begin to swim,
When thus the Dame accosted him:
This place, quoth she, they say's enchanted,
And with delinquent spirits haunted;
That here are tied in chains, and scourg'd,125
Until their guilty crimes be purg'd:
Look, there are two of them appear
Like persons I have seen somewhere:
Some have mistaken blocks and posts
For spectres, apparitions, ghosts,130
With saucer-eyes and horns; and some
Have heard the devil beat a drum:[3]
But if our eyes are not false glasses,
That give a wrong account of faces,
That beard and I should be acquainted,135
Before 'twas conjur'd and enchanted,
For though it be disfigur'd somewhat,
As if 't had lately been in combat,

  1. See above, Part I., Canto II., line 95, and note.
  2. That is, cheek to cheek, derived from two Anglo-Saxon words, ceac, and ceole. See jig by jowl in Wright's Glossary.
  3. The story of Mr Momposson's house being haunted by a drummer, made a great noise about the time our author wrote. The narrative is told in Glanvil on Witchcraft.