Page:Hudibras - Volume 1 (Butler, Nash, Bohn; 1859).djvu/68

16 Maugre all which, 'twas to stand fast As long as monarchy should last; But when the state should hap to reel, 'Twas to submit to fatal steel, And fall, as it was consecrate A sacrifice to fall of state; Whose thread of life the fatal sisters Did twist together with its whiskers, And twine so close, that Time should never, In life or death, their fortunes sever; But with his rusty sickle mow Both down together at a blow. So learned Taliacotius, from The brawny part of porter's bum, Cut supplemental noses, which Would last as long as parent breech: But when the date of Nock was out, Off dropt the sympathetic snout. His back, or rather burthen, show'd As if it stoop'd with its own load. For as Æneas bore his sire Upon his shoulders thro' the fire, Our knight did bear no less a pack Of his own buttocks on his back: Which now had almost got the upper- Hand of his head, for want of crupper. To poise this equally, he bore A paunch of the same bulk before: Which still he had a special care To keep well-cramm'd with thrifty fare; As white-pot, butter-milk, and curds, Such as a country-house affords;