Samuel Butler 1612-1680 John Bartlett


1
And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 11.
2
We grant, although he had much wit, He was very shy of using it.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 45.
3
Beside, ’t is known he could speak Greek As naturally as pigs squeak; 1 That Latin was no more difficile Than to a blackbird ’t is to whistle.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 51.
4
He could distinguish and divide A hair ’twixt south and southwest side.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 67.
5
For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 81.
6
For all a rhetorician’s rules Teach nothing but to name his tools.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 89.
7
A Babylonish dialect Which learned pedants much affect.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 93.
8
For he by geometric scale Could take the size of pots of ale.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 121.
9
And wisely tell what hour o’ the day The clock does strike, by algebra.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 125.
10
Whatever sceptic could inquire for, For every why he had a wherefore. 2
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 131.



11
Where entity and quiddity, The ghosts of defunct bodies, fly.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 145.
12
He knew what ’s what, 3 and that ’s as high As metaphysic wit can fly.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 149.
13
Such as take lodgings in a head That ’s to be let unfurnished. 4
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 161.
14
’T was Presbyterian true blue.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 191.
15
And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 199.
16
As if religion was intended For nothing else but to be mended.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 205.
17
Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 215.
18
The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, For want of fighting was grown rusty, And ate into itself, for lack Of somebody to hew and hack.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 359.
19
For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 463.
20
He ne’er consider’d it, as loth To look a gift-horse in the mouth. 5
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 490.
21
And force them, though it was in spite Of Nature and their stars, to write.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 647.
22
Quoth Hudibras, “I smell a rat! 6 Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate.”
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 821.
23
Or shear swine, all cry and no wool. 7
Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 852.
24
And bid the devil take the hin’most. 8
Hudibras. Part i. Canto ii. Line 633.
25
With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto ii. Line 831.
26
Like feather bed betwixt a wall And heavy brunt of cannon ball.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto ii. Line 872.
27
Ay me! what perils do environ The man that meddles with cold iron! 9
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1.
28
Who thought he ’d won The field as certain as a gun. 10
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 11.
29
Nor do I know what is become Of him, more than the Pope of Rome.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 263.
30
I ’ll make the fur Fly ’bout the ears of the old cur.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 277.
31
He had got a hurt O’ the inside, of a deadlier sort.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 309.
32
These reasons made his mouth to water.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 379.
33
While the honour thou hast got Is spick and span new. 11
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 398.
34
With mortal crisis doth portend My days to appropinque an end.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 589.
35
For those that run away and fly, Take place at least o’ the enemy.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 609.
36
I am not now in fortune’s power: He that is down can fall no lower. 12
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 877.
37
Cheer’d up himself with ends of verse And sayings of philosophers.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1011.
38
If he that in the field is slain Be in the bed of honour lain, He that is beaten may be said To lie in honour’s truckle-bed.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1047.
39
When pious frauds and holy shifts Are dispensations and gifts.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1145.
40
Friend Ralph, thou hast Outrun the constable 13 at last.
Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 1367.
41
Some force whole regions, in despite O’ geography, to change their site; Make former times shake hands with latter, And that which was before come after. But those that write in rhyme still make The one verse for the other’s sake; For one for sense, and one for rhyme, I think ’s sufficient at one time.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 23.
42
Some have been beaten till they know What wood a cudgel ’s of by th’ blow; Some kick’d until they can feel whether A shoe be Spanish or neat’s leather.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 221.
43
No Indian prince has to his palace More followers than a thief to the gallows.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 273.
44
Quoth she, I ’ve heard old cunning stagers Say fools for arguments use wagers.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 297.
45
Love in your hearts as idly burns As fire in antique Roman urns. 14
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 309.
46
For what is worth in anything But so much money as ’t will bring?
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 465.
47
Love is a boy by poets styl’d; Then spare the rod and spoil the child. 15
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 843.
48
The sun had long since in the lap Of Thetis taken out his nap, And, like a lobster boil’d, the morn From black to red began to turn.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 29.
49
Have always been at daggers-drawing, And one another clapper-clawing.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 79.
50
For truth is precious and divine,— Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 257.
51
Why should not conscience have vacation As well as other courts o’ th’ nation?
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 317.
52
He that imposes an oath makes it, Not he that for convenience takes it; Then how can any man be said To break an oath he never made?
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 377.
53
As the ancients Say wisely, have a care o’ th’ main chance, 16 And look before you ere you leap; 17 For as you sow, ye are like to reap. 18
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto ii. Line 501.
54
Doubtless the pleasure is as great Of being cheated as to cheat. 19
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 1.
55
He made an instrument to know If the moon shine at full or no.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 261.
56
Each window like a pill’ry appears, With heads thrust thro’ nail’d by the ears.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 391.
57
To swallow gudgeons ere they ’re catch’d, And count their chickens ere they ’re hatch’d.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 923.
58
There ’s but the twinkling of a star Between a man of peace and war.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 957.
59
But Hudibras gave him a twitch As quick as lightning in the breech, Just in the place where honour ’s lodg’d, As wise philosophers have judg’d; Because a kick in that part more Hurts honour than deep wounds before.
Hudibras. Part ii. Canto iii. Line 1065.
60
As men of inward light are wont To turn their optics in upon ’t.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 481.
61
Still amorous and fond and billing, Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 687.
62
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was prov’d true before Prove false again? Two hundred more.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1277.
63
’Cause grace and virtue are within Prohibited degrees of kin; And therefore no true saint allows They shall be suffer’d to espouse.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1293.
64
Nick Machiavel had ne’er a trick, Though he gave his name to our Old Nick.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1313.
65
With crosses, relics, crucifixes, Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pixes,— The tools of working our salvation By mere mechanic operation.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto i. Line 1495.
66
True as the dial to the sun, 20 Although it be not shin’d upon.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto ii. Line 175.
67
But still his tongue ran on, the less Of weight it bore, with greater ease.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto ii. Line 443.
68
For those that fly may fight again, Which he can never do that ’s slain. 21
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 243.
69
He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 547.
70
With books and money plac’d for show Like nest-eggs to make clients lay, And for his false opinion pay.
Hudibras. Part iii. Canto iii. Line 624.
71
And poets by their sufferings grow,— 22 As if there were no more to do, To make a poet excellent, But only want and discontent.
Fragments.

Note 1.
He Greek and Latin speaks with greater ease
Than hogs eat acorns, and tame pigeons peas.
Cranfield: Panegyric on Tom Coriate. [back]

Note 2.
See Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Quotation 3. [back]

Note 3.
See Skelton, Quotation 4. [back]

Note 4.
See Bacon, Quotation 53. [back]

Note 5.
See Heywood, Quotation 23. [back]

Note 6.
See Middleton, Quotation 4. [back]

Note 7.
See Fortescue, Quotation 1. [back]

Note 8.
Bid the Devil take the slowest.—Matthew Prior: On the Taking of Namur.

Deil tak the hindmost.—Robert Burns: To a Haggis. [back]

Note 9.
See Spenser, Quotation 7. [back]

Note 10.
Sure as a gun.—John Dryden: The Spanish Friar, act iii. sc. 2. Cervantes: Don Quixote, part i. book iii. chap. vii. [back]

Note 11.
See Middleton, Quotation 11. [back]

Note 12.
He that is down needs fear no fall.—John Bunyan: Pilgrim’s Progress, part ii. [back]

Note 13.
Outrun the constable.—Ray: Proverbs, 1670. [back]

Note 14.
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
William Cowper: Conversation, line 357. [back]

Note 15.
See Skelton, Quotation 1. [back]

Note 16.
See Lyly, Quotation 11. [back]

Note 17.
See Heywood, Quotation 8. [back]

Note 18.
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.—Galatians vi. [back]

Note 19.
This couplet is enlarged on by Swift in his “Tale of a Tub,” where he says that the happiness of life consists in being well deceived. [back]

Note 20.
True as the needle to the pole,
Or as the dial to the sun.
Barton Booth: Song. [back]

Note 21.
Let who will boast their courage in the field,
I find but little safety from my shield.
Nature’s, not honour’s, law we must obey:
This made me cast my useless shield away,
And by a prudent flight and cunning save
A life, which valour could not, from the grave.
A better buckler I can soon regain;
But who can get another life again?
Archilochus: Fragm. 6. (Quoted by Plutarch, Customs of the Lacedæmonians.)

Sed omissis quidem divinis exhortationibus illum magis Græcum versiculum secularis sententiæ sibi adhibent, “Qui fugiebat, rursus prœliabitur:” ut et rursus forsitan fugiat (But overlooking the divine exhortations, they act rather upon that Greek verse of worldly significance, “He who flees will fight again,” and that perhaps to betake himself again to flight).—Tertullian: De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 10.

The corresponding Greek, [greek], is ascribed to Menander. See Fragments (appended to Aristophanes in Didot’s Bib. Græca,) p. 91.

That same man that runnith awaie
Maie again fight an other daie.
Erasmus: Apothegms, 1542 (translated by Udall).

Celuy qui fuit de bonne heure
Peut combattre derechef
(He who flies at the right time can fight again).
Satyre Menippée (1594).

Qui fuit peut revenir aussi;
Qui meurt il n’en est pas ainsi
(He who flies can also return; but it is not so with him who dies).
Scarron (1610–1660).

He that fights and runs away
May turn and fight another day;
But he that is in battle slain
Will never rise to fight again.
Ray: History of the Rebellion (1752), p. 48.

For he who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again.
Oliver Goldsmith: The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761), vol. ii. p. 147. [back]

Note 22.
Most wretched men
Are cradled into poetry by wrong;
They learn in suffering what they teach in song.
Percy Bysshe Shelley: Julian and Maddalo. [back]

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