Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. II. The Seventeenth Century: Ben Jonson to Dryden
Samuel Butler (16121680)
Distichs and Saws (from Hudibras and Miscellanies)
(1)
RHYME the rudder is of verses, | With which like ships they steer their courses. (2) | In the hurry of a fray | ’Tis hard to keep out of harm’s way. (3) | Honour is like a widow, won | With brisk attempt and putting on, | With entering manfully and urging; | Not slow approaches, like a virgin. (4) | Great commanders always own | What ’s prosperous by the soldier done. (5) | Great conquerors greater glory gain | By foes in triumph led than slain. (6) | Ay me! what perils do environ | The man that meddles with cold iron! (7) | Valour ’s a mousetrap, wit a gin, | That women oft are taken in. (8) | In all the trade of war no feat | Is nobler than a brave retreat, | For those that run away and fly | Take place at least of the enemy. (9) | He that runs may fight again, | Which he can never do that ’s slain. (10) | Fools are known by looking wise, | As men tell woodcocks by their eyes. (11) | Night is the sabbath of mankind | To rest the body and the mind. (12) | As if artillery and edge-tools | Were the only engines to save souls! (13) | Money that, like the swords of kings, | Is the last reason of all things. (14) | He that complies against his will | Is of his own opinion still. (15) | Those that write in rhyme still make | The one verse for the other’s sake. (16) | He that will win his dame must do | As Love does when he bends his bow: | With one hand thrust the lady from, | And with the other pull her home. (17) | What is worth in anything | But so much money as ’twill bring? (18) | The Public Faith, which every one | Is bound to observe, is kept by none. (19) | He that imposes an oath makes it, | Not he that for convenience takes it. (20) | Opinion governs all mankind, | Like the blind’s leading of the blind. (21) | The worst of rebels never arm | To do their king and country harm, | But draw their swords to do them good, | As doctors use, by letting blood. (22) | The soberest saints are more stiff-neckèd | Than the hottest-headed of the wicked. (23) | Wedlock without love, some say, | Is like a lock without a key. (24) | Too much or too little wit | Do only render the owners fit | For nothing, but to be undone | Much easier than if they had none. (25) | In little trades more cheats and lying | Is used in selling than in buying; | But in the great unjuster dealing | Is used in buying than in selling, (26) | Loyalty is still the same, | Whether it win or lose the game; | True as the dial to the sun, | Although it be not shined upon. (27) | The subtler all things are, | They’re but to nothing the more near. (28) | Things said false and never meant | Do oft prove true by accident. (29) | Authority is a disease and cure | Which men can neither want nor well endure.
|