Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/303

CANTO II.] When wives their sexes shift, like hares, And ride their husbands like night-mares; And they, in mortal battle vanquish'd, Are of their charter disenfranchis'd, And by the right of war, like gills, Condemn'd to distaff, horns, and wheels: For when men by their wives are cow'd, Their horns of course are understood. Quoth Hudibras, Thou still giv'st sentence Impertinently, and against sense: 'Tis not the least disparagement To be defeated by th' event, Nor to be beaten by main force; That does not make a man the worse, Altho' his shoulders, with battoon, Be claw'd, and cudgell'd to some tune; A tailor's 'prentice has no hard Measure, that's bang'd with a true yard; But to turn tail, or run away, And without blows give up the day; Or to surrender ere the assault, That's no man's fortune, but his fault; And renders men of honour less Than all th' adversity of success; And only unto such this show Of horns and petticoats is due. There is a lesser profanation, Like that the Romans call'd ovation: