Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/130

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 * Last Colon came, bold man of war,

Destined to blows by fatal star; Right expert in command of horse, But cruel, and without remorse. That which of Centaur long ago Was said, and has been wrested to Some other knights, was true of this: He and his horse were of a piece. One spirit did inform them both, The self-same vigour, fury, wrath; Yet he was much the rougher part, And always had the harder heart, Altho' his horse had been of those That fed on man's flesh, as fame goes. Strange food for horse! and yet, alas! It may be true, for flesh is grass. Sturdy he was, and no less able Than Hercules to cleanse a stable; As great a drover, and as great A critic too, in hog or neat. He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, And provender, wherewith to feed Himself and his less cruel steed. It was a question, whether he, Or's horse, were of a family More worshipful; till antiquaries, After they'd almost pored out their eyes,