Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=512557" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>An Heroic Epistle of Hudibras To His Lady</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I who was once as great as Caesar,<br>Am now reduc'd to Nebuchadnezzar;<br>And from as fam'd a conqueror<br>As ever took degree in war,<br>Or did his exercise in battle,<br>By you turn'd out to grass with cattle:<br>For since I am deny'd access<br>To all my earthly happiness<br>Am fallen from the paradise<br>Of your good graces, and fair eyes; <br>Lost to the world, and you, I'm sent<br>To everlasting banishment;<br>Where all the hopes I had t' have won<br>Your heart, b'ing dash'd, will break my own.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet if you were not so severe<br>To pass your doom before you hear,<br>You'd find, upon my just defence,<br>How much y' have wrong'd my innocence.<br>That once I made a vow to you,<br>Which yet is unperformed, 'tis true:<br>But not because it is unpaid,<br>'Tis violated, though delay'd;<br>Or, if it were, it is no fau't,<br>So heinous as you'd have it thought;<br>To undergo the loss of ears,<br>Like vulgar hackney perjurers<br>For there's a diff'rence in the case,<br>Between the noble and the base,<br>Who always are observ'd t' have done't<br>Upon as different an account: <br>The one for great and weighty cause,<br>To salve in honour ugly flaws;<br>For none are like to do it sooner<br>Than those who are nicest of their honour:<br>The other, for base gain and pay, <br>Forswear, and perjure by the day;<br>And make th' exposing and retailing<br>Their souls and consciences a calling.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It is no scandal, nor aspersion,<br>Upon a great and noble person,<br>To say he nat'rally abhorr'd<br>Th' old-fashion'd trick, To keep his word;<br>Though 'tis perfidiousness and shame<br>In meaner men to do the same:<br>For to be able to forget, <br>Is found more useful to the great,<br>Than gout, or deafness, or bad eyes,<br>To make 'em pass for wond'rous wise.<br>But though the law on perjurers<br>Inflicts the forfeiture of ears,<br>It is not just that does exempt<br>The guilty, and punish th' innocent;<br>To make the ears repair the wrong<br>Committed by th' ungovern'd tongue;<br>And when one member is forsworn, <br>Another to be cropt or torn.<br>And if you shou'd, as you design,<br>By course of law, recover mine,<br>You're like, if you consider right,<br>To gain but little honour by't. <br>For he that for his lady's sake<br>Lays down his life or limbs at stake,<br>Does not so much deserve her favour,<br>As he that pawns his soul to have her,<br>This y' have acknowledg'd I have done, <br>Although you now disdain to own;<br>But sentence what you rather ought<br>T' esteem good service than a fau't.<br>Besides, oaths are not bound to bear<br>That literal sense the words infer,<br>But, by the practice of the age,<br>Are to be judg'd how far th' engage;<br>And, where the sense by custom's checkt,<br>Are found void, and of none effect.<br>For no man takes or keeps a vow <br>But just as he sees others do;<br>Nor are th' oblig'd to be so brittle,<br>As not to yield and bow a little:<br>For as best-temper'd blades are found,<br>Before they break, to bend quite round, <br>So truest oaths are still most tough,<br>And though they bow, are breaking proof.<br>Then wherefore should they not b' allow'd<br>In love a greater latitude?<br>For as the law of arms approves <br>All ways to conquest, so should love's;<br>And not be ty'd to true or false,<br>But make that justest that prevails<br>For how can that which is above<br>All empire, high and mighty love,<br>Submit its great prerogative<br>To any other power alive?<br>Shall love, that to no crown gives place,<br>Become the subject of a case?<br>The fundamental law of nature, <br>Be over-rul'd by those made after?<br>Commit the censure of its cause<br>To any but its own great laws?<br>Love, that's the world's preservative,<br>That keeps all souls of things alive;<br>Controuls the mighty pow'r of fate,<br>And gives mankind a longer date;<br>The life of nature, that restores<br>As fast as time and death devours;<br>To whose free-gift the world does owe, <br>Not only earth, but heaven too;<br>For love's the only trade that's driven,<br>The interest of state in heav'n,<br>Which nothing but the soul of man<br>Is capable to entertain. <br>For what can earth produce, but love<br>To represent the joys above?<br>Or who but lovers can converse,<br>Like angels, by e the eye-discourse?<br>Address and compliment by vision; <br>Make love and court by intuition?<br>And burn in amorous flames as fierce<br>As those celestial ministers?<br>Then how can any thing offend,<br>In order to so great an end?<br>Or heav'n itself a sin f resent,<br>That for its own supply was meant?<br>That merits, in a kind mistake,<br>A pardon for th' offence's sake.<br>Or if it did not, but the cause <br>Were left to th' injury at laws,<br>What tyranny can disapprove<br>There should be equity in love;<br>For laws that are inanimate,<br>And feel no sense of love or hate, <br>That have no passion of their own,<br>Nor pity to be wrought upon,<br>Are only proper to inflict<br>Revenge on criminals as strict<br>But to have power to forgive, <br>Is empire and prerogative;<br>And 'tis in crowns a nobler gem<br>To grant a pardon than condemn.<br>Then since so few do what they ought,<br>'Tis great t' indulge a well-meant fau't. <br>For why should he who made address,<br>All humble ways, without success,<br>And met with nothing, in return,<br>But insolence, affronts, and scorn,<br>Not strive by wit to countermine,<br>And bravely carry his design?<br>He who was us'd so unlike a soldier,<br>Blown up with philters of love-powder?<br>And after letting blood, and purging,<br>Condemn'd to voluntary scourging; <br>Alarm'd with many a horrid fright,<br>And claw'd by goblins in the night;<br>Insulted on, revil'd, and jeer'd,<br>With rude invasion of his beard;<br>And when your sex was foully scandal'd,<br>As foully by the rabble handled;<br>Attack'd by despicable foes,<br>And drub'd with mean and vulgar blows;<br>And, after all, to be debarr'd<br>So much as standing on his guard;<br>When horses, being spurr'd and prick'd,<br>Have leave to kick for being kick'd?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Or why should you, whose mother-wits<br>Are furnish'd with all perquisites,<br>That with your breeding-teeth begin,<br>And nursing babies, that lie in,<br>B' allow'd to put all tricks upon<br>Our cully sex, and we use none?<br>We, who have nothing but frail vows<br>Against your stratagems t' oppose;<br>Or oaths more feeble than your own,<br>By which we are no less put down?<br>You wound, like g Parthians, while you fly,<br>And kill with a retreating eye:<br>Retire the more, the more we press <br>To draw us into ambushes.<br>As pirates all false colours wear<br>T' intrap th' unwary mariner,<br>So women, to surprise us, spread<br>The borrow'd flags of white and red;<br>Display 'em thicker on their cheeks<br>Than their old grandmothers, the Picts;<br>And raise more devils with their looks,<br>Than conjurer's less subtle books;<br>Lay trains of amorous intrigues, <br>In tow'rs, and curls, and perriwigs,<br>With greater art and cunning rear'd,<br>Than h PHILIP NYE's thanksgiving beard,<br>Prepost'rously t' entice, and gain<br>Those to adore 'em they disdain; <br>And only draw 'em in, to clog<br>With idle names a catalogue.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A lover is, the more he's brave,<br>T' his mistress but the more a slave;<br>And whatsoever she commands, <br>Becomes a favour from her hands;<br>Which he's obliged t' obey, and must,<br>Whether it be unjust or just.<br>Then when he is compell'd by her<br>T' adventures he would else forbear, <br>Who with his honour can withstand,<br>Since force is greater than command?<br>And when necessity's obey'd,<br>Nothing can be unjust or bad<br>And therefore when the mighty pow'rs <br>Of love, our great ally and yours,<br>Join'd forces not to be withstood<br>By frail enamour'd flesh and blood,<br>All I have done, unjust or ill,<br>Was in obedience to your will; <br>And all the blame that can be due,<br>Falls to your cruelty and you.<br>Nor are those scandals I confest,<br>Against my will and interest,<br>More than is daily done of course <br>By all men, when they're under force;<br>When some upon the rack confess<br>What th' hangman and their prompters please;<br>But are no sooner out of pain,<br>Than they deny it all again. <br>But when the Devil turns confessor,<br>Truth is a crime he takes no pleasure<br>To hear, or pardon, like the founder<br>Of liars, whom they all claim under<br>And therefore, when I told him none,<br>I think it was the wiser done.<br>Nor am I without precedent,<br>The first that on th' adventure went<br>All mankind ever did of course,<br>And daily dues the same, or worse.<br>For what romance can show a lover,<br>That had a lady to recover,<br>And did not steer a nearer course,<br>To fall a-board on his amours?<br>And what at first was held a crime, <br>Has turn'd to honourable in time.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To what a height did i infant ROME,<br>By ravishing of women, come<br>When men upon their spouses seiz'd,<br>And freely marry'd where they pleas'd, <br>They ne'er forswore themselves, nor ly'd.<br>Nor, in the mind they were in, dy'd;<br>Nor took the pains t' address and sue,<br>Nor play'd the masquerade to woo;<br>Disdain'd to stay for friends' consents;<br>Nor juggled about settlements:<br>Did need no license, nor no priest,<br>Nor friends, nor kindred, to assist;<br>Nor lawyers, to join land and money<br>In th' holy state of matrimony,<br>Before they settled hands and hearts,<br>Till k alimony or death them parts:<br>Nor wou'd endure to stay until<br>Th' had got the very bride's good will;<br>But took a wise and shorter course <br>To win the ladies, downright force.<br>And justly made 'em prisoners then,<br>As they have often since, us men,<br>With acting plays, and dancing jigs,<br>The luckiest of all love's intrigues; <br>And when they had them at their pleasure,<br>Then talk'd of love and flames at leisure;<br>For after matrimony's over,<br>He that holds out but half a lover,<br>Deserves for ev'ry minute more <br>Than half a year of love before;<br>For which the dames in contemplation<br>Of that best way of application,<br>Prov'd nobler wives than e'er was known,<br>By suit or treaty to be won; <br>And such as all posterity<br>Cou'd never equal nor come nigh.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For women first were made for men,<br>Not men for them. - It follows, then,<br>That men have right to ev'ry one, <br>And they no freedom of their own<br>And therefore men have pow'r to chuse,<br>But they no charter to refuse.<br>Hence 'tis apparent, that what course<br>Soe'er we take to your amours, <br>Though by the indirectest way,<br>'Tis no injustice, nor foul play;<br>And that you ought to take that course,<br>As we take you, for better or worse;<br>And gratefully submit to those <br>Who you, before another, chose.<br>For why should ev'ry savage beast<br>Exceed his great lord's interest?<br>Have freer pow'r than he in grace,<br>And nature, o'er the creature has?<br>Because the laws he since has made<br>Have cut off all the pow'r he had;<br>Retrench'd the absolute dominion<br>That nature gave him over women;<br>When all his pow'r will not extend <br>One law of nature to suspend;<br>And but to offer to repeal<br>The smallest clause, is to rebel.<br>This, if men rightly understood<br>Their privilege, they wou'd make good; <br>And not, like sots, permit their wives<br>T' encroach on their prerogatives;<br>For which sin they deserve to be<br>Kept, as they are, in slavery:<br>And this some precious Gifted Teachers,<br>Unrev'rently reputed leachers,<br>And disobey'd in making love,<br>Have vow'd to all the world to prove,<br>And make ye suffer, as you ought,<br>For that uncharitable fau't. <br>But I forget myself, and rove<br>Beyond th' instructions of my love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Forgive me (Fair) and only blame<br>Th' extravagancy of my flame,<br>Since 'tis too much at once to show<br>Excess of love and temper too.<br>All I have said that's bad and true,<br>Was never meant to aim at you,<br>Who have so sov'reign a controul<br>O'er that poor slave of yours, my soul,<br>That, rather than to forfeit you,<br>Has ventur'd loss of heaven too:<br>Both with an equal pow'r possest,<br>To render all that serve you blest:<br>But none like him, who's destin'd either <br>To have, or lose you, both together.<br>And if you'll but this fault release<br>(For so it must be, since you please)<br>I'll pay down all that vow, and more,<br>Which you commanded, and I swore, <br>And expiate upon my skin<br>Th' arrears in full of all my sin.<br>For 'tis but just that I should pay<br>Th' accruing penance for delay,<br>Which shall be done, until it move <br>Your equal pity and your love.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Knight, perusing this Epistle,<br>Believ'd h' had brought her to his whistle;<br>And read it like a jocund lover,<br>With great applause t' himself, twice over; <br>Subscrib'd his name, but at a fit<br>And humble distance to his wit;<br>And dated it with wond'rous art,<br>Giv'n from the bottom of his heart;<br>Then seal'd it with his Coat of Love,<br>A smoaking faggot - and above,<br>Upon a scroll - I burn, and weep;<br>And near it - For her Ladyship;<br>Of all her sex most excellent,<br>These to her gentle hands present. <br>Then gave it to his faithful Squire,<br>With lessons how t' observe and eye her.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She first consider'd which was better,<br>To send it back, or burn the letter.<br>But guessing that it might import, <br>Though nothing else, at least her sport,<br>She open'd it, and read it out,<br>With many a smile and leering flout:<br>Resolv'd to answer it in kind,<br>And thus perform'd what she design'd.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Samuel+Butler">Samuel Butler</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=512557" data-title="An Heroic Epistle of Hudibras To His Lady de Samuel Butler" data-description="I who was once as great as Caesar,
Am now reduc'd to Nebuchadnezzar;
And from as fam'd a conqueror
As ever took degree in war,
Or did his exercise in battle,
By you turn'd out to grass with cattle:
For since I am deny'd access
To all my earthly ha..."></div>
</div>
</div>