Hudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late WarsButler, Samuel
General
Hudibras, in Three Parts, Written in the Time of the Late Wars
Butler, Samuel
English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700
47 x That is to say, whether Tollulation,
As they do term't, or Succussation.
Tollulation and succussation are only Latin words for ambling
and trotting; though I believe both were natural amongst the old
Romans; since I never read they made use of the trammel, or
any other art, to pace their horses.
60 y As Indian Britons, &c.] The American Indians call a great
bird they have, with a white head, a penguin, which signifies the
same thing in the British tongue: from whence (with other
words of the same kind) some authors have endeavoured to
prove, that the Americans are originally derived from the
Britons.
65 z The dire, &c.] Pharsalia is a city of Thessaly, famous for
the battle won by Julius Caesar against Pompey the Great, in
the neighbouring plains, in the 607th year of Rome, of which
read Lucan's Pharsalia.
129 a Chiron, the &c.] Chiron, a Centaur, son to Saturn and
Phillyris, living in the mountains, where, being much given to
hunting, he became very knowing in the virtues of plants and
one of the most famous physicians of his time. He imparted his
skill to AEsculapius and was afterwards Apollo's governor,
until being wounded by Hercules, and desiring to die, Jupiter
placed him in heaven, where he forms the sign of Sagittarius or
the Archer.
133 b In Staffordshire, where virtuous Worth
Does raise the Minstrelsy, not Birth, &c.
The whole history of this ancient ceremony you may read at
large in Dr. Plot's History of Staffordshire, under the town
Tutbury.
155 c Grave as, &c.] For the history of Pegu, read Mandelsa
and Olearius's Travels.
172 In military, &c.] Paris Garden, in Southwark, took its name
from the possessor.
231 Though by, &c.] Promethean fire. Prometheus was the son
of Iapetus, and brother of Atlas, concerning whom the poets
have feigned, that having first formed men of the earth and
water, he stole fire from heaven to put life into them; and that
having thereby displeased Jupiter, he commanded Vulcan to tie
him to mount Caucasus with iron chains, and that a vulture
should prey upon his liver continually: but the truth of the story
is, that Prometheus was an astrologer, and constant in observing
the stars upon that mountain; and, that, among other things, he
found the art of making fire, either by the means of a flint, or by
contracting the sun-beams in a glass. Bochart will have Magog,
in the Scripture, to be the Prometheus of the Pagans.
He here and before sarcastically derides those who were great
admirers of the sympathetic powder and weapon salve, which
were in great repute in those days, and much promoted by the
great Sir Kenelm Digby, who wrote a treatise ex professo [of his
own knowledge] on that subject, and, I believe, thought what he
wrote to be true, which since has been almost exploded out of
the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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