Or pigs that fuddenly deceast

Of griefs unnatural, as he guest ;
Who after prov'd himself a witch,
And made a rod for his own breech.
Did not the devil appear to Martin
Luther in Germany, for certain ?

And would have gull'd him with a trick,
But Mart. was too, too politick.

Did he not help the Dutch to purge,
At Antwerp, their cathedral church?
Sing catches to the Saints at Mascon,
And tell them all they came to ask him?
Appear in divers shapes to Kelly,

And speak i' th' Nun of Loudon's belly?
Meet with the Parliament's Committee,
At Woodstock, on a personal treaty?
At Sarum take a cavalier,

I' th' Caufe's fervice, prisoner?
As Withers in immortal rhyme
Has register'd to after-time.
Do not our great Reformers use
This Sidrophel to forebode news;
To write of victories next year,
And caftles taken yet i' th' air?

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160

165

170

Of

Ver. 169.] This Withers was a Puritanical officer in the Parliament army, and a great pretender to poetry, as appears from his Poems enumerated by A. Wood.

Of battles fought at fea, and fhips
Sunk two years hence, the laft eclipse ?
A total o'erthrow given the King
In Cornwall, horfe and foot, next spring?
And has not he point-blank foretold
Whatfoe'er the Close Committee would?
Made Mars and Saturn for the Cause,
The Moon for fundamental laws?
The Ram, the Bull, and Goat, declare
Against the Book of Common-Prayer?
The Scorpion take the Proteftation,
And Bear engage for Reformation ?
Made all the Royal stars recant,
Compound, and take the Covenant ?

Quoth Hudibras, The cafe is clear
The Saints may' employ a conjurer,
As thou haft prov'd it by their practice;
No argument like matter of fact is:
And we are beft of all led to
Men's principles by what they do.
Then let us ftrait advance in queft
Of this profound gymnofophift,
And, as the Fates and he advise,
Purfue or wave this enterprise.
This faid, he turn'd about his steed,
And eftfoons on th' adventure rid;
Where leave we him and Ralph awhile,
And to the conjurer turn our ftyle,
To let our reader understand

What's ufeful of him before-hand.

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180

185

190

195

200

He

He had been long towards mathematics,

Optics, philofophy, and statics,

Magic, horofcopy, aftrology,

205

And was old dog at physiology;
But as a dog that turns the spit
Beftirs himself, and plies his feet
To climb the wheel, but all in vain,
His own weight brings him down again,
And still he 's in the felf-fame place
Where at his fetting out he was;
So in the circle of the arts
Did he advance his natural parts,
Till falling back ftill, for retreat,
He fell to juggle, cant, and cheat:
For as thofe fowls that live in water
Are never wet, he did but finatter;
Whate'er he labour'd to appear,
His understanding still was clear;

Yet none a deeper knowledge boasted,

Since old Hodge Bacon, and Bob Grofted.

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215

220

Th'

Ver. 224.] Roger Bacon, commonly called Friar Bacon, lived in the reign of our Edward I. and for fome little skill he had in the mathematicks, was by the rabble accounted a conjurer, and had the fottish ftory of the Brazen Head fathered upon him by the ignorant Monks of those days.

ibid.] Bishop Grofted was Bishop of Lincoln, 20th Henry III. A. D. 1235. "He was fulpected by the clergy to be a conjurer; for which crime he was de"prived by Pope Innocent IV. and fummoned to ap

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66 pear

Th' intelligible world he knew,
And all men dream on 't to be true,

225

That in this world there 's not a wart
That has not there a counterpart;
Nor can there on the face of ground
An individual beard be found

That has not, in that foreign nation,
A fellow of the felf-fame fashion
So cut, fo colour'd, and fo curl'd,
As thofe are in th' inferior world.
He 'ad read Dee's prefaces before,

The Devil, and Euclid, o'er and o'er;
And all th' intrigues 'twixt him and Kelly,
Lefcus and th' Emperor, would tell ye :

But with the moon was more familiar
Than e'er was almanac well-willer;
Her fecrets understood fo clear,

That fome believ'd he had been there;

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230

235

240

Knew

pear at Rome." But this is a mistake; for the Pope's antipathy to him was occafioned by his frankly expoftulating with him (both perfonally and by letter) on his encroachments upon the English church and monarchy. He was perfecuted by Pope Innocent, but it is not certain that he was deprived, though Bale thinks he was.

Ver. 235.] Dee was a Welfhman, and educated at Oxford, where he commenced Doctor, and afterwards travelled into foreign parts, in queft of chemistry, &c.

Ver. 238.] Albertus Lafcus, Lasky, or Alasco, Prince Palatine of Poland, concerned with Dee and Kelly.

Knew when he was in fittest mood

For cutting corns, or letting blood;
When for anointing fcabs or itches,
Or to the bum applying leeches;

When fows and bitches may be spay'd,
And in what fign best cyder 's made;
Whether the wane be, or increase,

245

Beft to fet garlic, or fow peafe;

250

Who first found out the man i' th' moon,

That to the Ancients was unknown;

How many dukes, and earls, and peers,

Are in the planetary spheres ;

Their airy empire and command,

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Their several strengths by fea and land;

What factions they 'ave, and what they drive at

In public vogue, or what in private :

With what designs and interests

Each party manages contests.

He made an inftrument to know

If the moon fhine at full or no;

That would, as foon as e'er the fhone, straight
Whether 'twere day or night demonstrate;

260

Tell what her diameter to an inch is,
And prove that the 's not made of green

265

cheese.

It would demonftrate, that the man in
The moon's a fea Mediterranean;