Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/304

202 For as ovation was allow'd For conquest purchas'd without blood; So men decree those lesser shows For vict'ry gotten without blows. By dint of sharp hard words, which some Give battle with, and overcome; These mounted in a chair-curule, Which moderns call a cucking-stool, March proudly to the river's side, And o'er the waves in triumph ride; Like dukes of Venice, who are said The Adriatic sea to wed; And have a gentler wife than those For whom the state decrees those shows. But both are heathenish, and come From th' whores of Babylon and Rome, And by the saints should be withstood, As antichristian and lewd; And we, as such, should now contribute Our utmost strugglings to prohibit. This said, they both advanc'd, and rode A dog-trot through the bawling crowd T' attack the leader, and still prest 'Till they approach'd him breast to breast: Then Hudibras, with face and hand, Made signs for silence; which obtain'd, What means, quoth he, this devil's procession With men of orthodox profession?