Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/107

CANTO II.] Or wives, or children, so they can Make up some fierce, dead-doing man, Composed of many ingredient valours, Just like the manhood of nine tailors. So a wild Tartar, when he spies A man that's handsome, valiant, wise, If he can kill him, thinks t' inherit His wit, his beauty, and his spirit; As if just so much he enjoy'd, As in another is destroy'd: For when a giant's slain in fight, And mow'd o'erthwart, or cleft downright, It is a heavy case, no doubt, A man should have his brains beat out, Because he's tall, and has large bones, As men kill beavers for their stones. But, as for our part, we shall tell The naked truth of what befell. And as an equal friend to both The Knight and Bear, but more to troth; With neither faction shall take part. But give to each his due desert, And never coin a formal lie on't, To make the Knight o'ercome the giant. This b'ing profest, we've hopes enough, And now go on where we left off. They rode, but authors having not Determin'd whether pace or trot, That is to say, whether tollutation, As they do term't, or succussation,