Hudibras - Samuel Butler (story reading txt) š
- Author: Samuel Butler
Book online Ā«Hudibras - Samuel Butler (story reading txt) šĀ». Author Samuel Butler
Go unrevengād, though I am free:
Thou down the same throat shalt devour āem,
Like tainted beef, and pay dear for āem.
Nor shall it eāer be said, that wight
With gantlet blue, and bases white,
And round blunt truncheon by his side,
So great a man at arms defyād
With words far bitterer than wormwood,
That would in Job or Grizel stir mood.
Dogs with their tongues their wounds do heal;
But men with hands, as thou shalt feel.
This said, with hasty rage he snatchād
His gun-shot, that in holsters watchād;
And bending cock, he levellād full
Against thā outside of Talgolās skull;
Vowing that he should neāer stir further,
Nor henceforth cow nor bullock murther.
But Pallas came in shape of rust,
And ātwixt the spring and hammer thrust
Her Gorgon shield, which made the cock
Stand stiff, as ātwere transformād to stock.
Meanwhile fierce Talgol, gathāring might,
With rugged truncheon chargād the Knight;
But he with petronel upheavād,
Instead of shield, the blow receivād.
The gun recoilād, as well it might,
Not usād to such a kind of fight,
And shrunk from its great masterās gripe,
Knockād down and stunnād by mortal stripe.
Then Hudibras, with furious haste,
Drew out his sword; yet not so fast,
But Talgol first, with hardy thwack,
Twice bruisād his head, and twice his back.
But when his nut-brown sword was out,
With stomach huge he laid about,
Imprinting many a wound upon
His mortal foe, the truncheon.
The trusty cudgel did oppose
Itself against dead-doing blows,
To guard its leader from fell bane,
And then revengād itself again.
And though the sword (some understood)
In force had much the odds of wood,
āTwas nothing so; both sides were balancād
So equal, none knew which was valiantāst:
For wood with Honour bāing engagād,
Is so implacably enragād,
Though iron hew and mangle sore,
Wood wounds and bruises honour more.
And now both knights were out of breath,
Tirād in the hot pursuit of death;
While all the rest amazād stood still,
Expecting which should take or kill.
This Hudibras observād; and fretting
Conquest should be so long a getting,
He drew up all his force into
One body, and that into one blow.
But Talgol wisely avoided it
By cunning sleight; for had it hit,
The upper part of him the blow
Had slit as sure as that below.
Meanwhile thā incomparable Colon,
To aid his friend, began to fall on.
Him Ralph encounterād, and straight grew
A dismal combat ātwixt them two:
Thā one armād with metal, thā other with wood;
This fit for bruise, and that for blood.
With many a stiff thwack, many a bang,
Hard crab-tree and old iron rang;
While none that saw them could divine
To which side conquest would incline,
Until Magnano, who did envy
That two should with so many men vie,
By subtle stratagem of brain,
Performād what force could neāer attain;
For he, by foul hap, having found
Where thistles grew on barren ground,
In haste he drew his weapon out,
And having croppād them from the root,
He clappād them underneath the tail
Of steed, with pricks as sharp as nail.
The angry beast did straight resent
The wrong done to his fundament;
Began to kick, and fling, and wince,
As if hā had been beside his sense,
Striving to disengage from thistle,
That gallād him sorely under his tail:
Instead of which, he threw the pack
Of Squire and baggage from his back;
And blundāring still with smarting rump,
He gave the Knightās steed such a thump
As made him reel. The Knight did stoop,
And sat on further side aslope.
This Talgol viewing, who had now
By sleight escapād the fatal blow,
He rallyād, and again fell toāt;
For catching foe by nearer foot,
He lifted with such might and strength,
As would have hurlād him thrice his length,
And dashād his brains (if any) out:
But Mars, that still protects the stout,
In pudding-time came to his aid,
And under him the bear conveyād;
The bear, upon whose soft fur-gown
The Knight with all his weight fell down.
The friendly rug preservād the ground,
And headlong Knight, from bruise or wound:
Like feather-bed betwixt a wall
And heavy brunt of cannon-ball.
As Sancho on a blanket fell,
And had no hurt, ours farād as well
In body; though his mighty spirit,
Bāing heavy, did not so well bear it.
The bear was in a greater fright,
Beat down and worsted by the Knight.
He roarād, and ragād, and flung about,
To shake off bondage from his snout.
His wrath inflamād, boilād oāer, and from
His jaws of death he threw the foam:
Fury in stranger postures threw him,
And more than herald ever drew him.
He tore the earth which he had savād
From squelch of Knight, and stormād and ravād,
And vext the more because the harms
He felt were āgainst the law of arms:
For men he always took to be
His friends, and dogs the enemy;
Who never so much hurt had done him,
As his own side did falling on him.
It grievād him to the guts that they
For whom hā had fought so many a fray,
And servād with loss of blood so long,
Shouād offer such inhuman wrong;
Wrong of unsoldier-like condition:
For which he flung down his commission;
And laid about him, till his nose
From thrall of ring and cord broke loose.
Soon as he felt himself enlargād,
Through thickest of his foes he chargād,
And made way through thā amazed crew;
Some he oāerran, and some oāerthrew,
But took none; for by hasty flight
He strove tā escape pursuit of Knight;
From whom he fled with as much haste
And dread as he the rabble chasād.
In haste he fled, and so did they;
Each and his fear a several way.
Crowdero only kept the field;
Not stirring from the place he held,
Though beaten down and wounded sore,
Iā thā fiddle, and a leg that bore
One side of him; not that of bone,
But much its better, thā wooden one.
He spying Hudibras lie strowād
Upon the ground, like log of wood,
With fright of fall, supposed wound,
And loss of urine, in a swound,
In haste he snatchād the wooden limb,
That hurt iā thā ankle lay by him,
And fitting it for sudden fight,
Straight drew it up tā attack the Knight;
For getting up on stump and huckle,
He with the foe began to buckle;
Vowing to be revengād for breach
Of crowd and skin upon the wretch,
Sole author of all detriment
He and his fiddle underwent.
But Ralpho (who had now begun
Tā adventure resurrection
From heavy squelch, and had got up
Upon his legs, with sprained crup)
Looking about, beheld pernicion
Approaching Knight from fell musician.
He snatchād his whinyard up, that fled
When he was falling off his steed,
(As rats do from a falling house,)
To hide itself from rage
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