Hudibras Samuel Butler (free novels to read TXT) 📖

abused the piety of some devout persons, by imposing such stories on them as this upon St. Francis. ↩

The history of Pasiphae is common enough: only this may be observed, that though she brought the bull a son and heir, yet the husband was fain to father it, as appears by the name; perhaps, because being an island, he was within the four seas when the infant was begotten. ↩

Albertus Magnus was a Swedish bishop, who wrote a very learned work, De Secretis Mulierum. ↩

Pliny in his Natural History, affirms, that, Uni animalium homini oculi depravantur, unde cognomina Strabonum et Pætorum. Lib 2. ↩

The tradition of Friar Bacon and the Brazen Head is very commonly known; and, considering the times he lived in, is not much more strange than what another great philosopher of his name has delivered up of a ring, that being tied in a string, and held like a pendulum in the middle of a silver bowl, will vibrate of itself, and tell exactly against the sides of the divining cup, the same thing with, Time is, time was, etc. ↩

American Indians, among whom (the same authors affirm) there are others whose skulls are so soft, to use their own words, Ut digito perforari possunt. ↩

Jupiter’s oracle in Epirus, near the city of Dodona, Ubi nemus erat Jovis acrum. Querneum totum, in quo Jovis Dodonæi templum fuisse narratur. ↩

Semiramis, queen of Assyria, is said to be the first that invented eunuchs. Semiramis teneros mares castravit omnium prima. Am. Marcel 1. 34. p. 12. Which is something strange in a lady of her constitution, who is said to have received horses into her embraces; but that, perhaps, may be the reason why she afterwards thought men not worth the while. ↩

Sir K. D. in his Book of Bodies, who has this story of the German Boy, which he endeavours to make good by several natural reasons; by which those who have the dexterity to believe what they please may be fully satisfied of the probability of it. ↩

Xerxes, who used to whip the seas and wind. In eorum atque Eurum solitus sævire flagellis. —⁠Juv. Sat. 10 ↩

In porticu (Stoicorum Schola Athenis) Discipulorum Seditionibus mille Quadrigenti triginta Cives interfecti sunt. Diog. Laert. in Vita Zenonis, p. 383. [One thousand four hundred and thirty citizens were killed in the quarrels of the disciples in the porch (of the Stoic School of Athens).] Those old virtuosos were better proficients in those exercises than modern, who seldom improve higher than cuffing and kicking. ↩

Bonum is such a kind of animal as our modern virtuosi from Don Quixote will have windmills under sail to be. The same authors are of opinion, that all ships are fishes while they are afloat; but when they are run on ground, or laid up in the dock, become ships again. ↩

The history of the cobbler had been attested by persons of good credit, who were upon the place when it was done. ↩

The Knight was kept prisoner in Exeter, and, after several exchanges proposed, but none accepted of, was at last released for a barrel of ale, as he often used to declare. ↩

Et sibi Consul
Me placeat, curru servus portatur eodem.

[And it pleased the Consul to have me carried as a slave in his chariot.] ↩

Tunica Coccinia solebat pridie quam dimicandum esset, supra prætorium poni, quasi admonito, et indicium futuræ pugnæ. [The praetors wore scarlet tunics on the day before the battle, for a warning, and a portent of the future.] —⁠Lipsius in Tacitus p. 56 ↩

That the Roman Emperors were wont to have torches borne before them (by day) appears by Herodian in Pertinace. Lipsius in Tacitus p. 16. ↩

C. Caesar sucensens, propter curam verrendis viis non adhibitam, luto jussit oppleri congesto per milites in prætextæ sinum. —⁠Sueton. in Vespas. c. 5 ↩

The witch-finder in Suffolk, who, in the Presbyterian times, had a commission to discover witches, of whom (right or wrong) he caused sixty to be hanged within the compass of year; and, among the rest, the old minister, who been a painful preacher for many years. ↩

In the beginning of the civil wars of Flanders, the common people of Antwerp in a tumult broke open the cathedral church, to demolish images and shrines, and did so much mischief in a small time, that Strada writes, there were several devils seen very busy among them, otherwise it had been impossible. ↩

This devil at Mascon delivered all his oracles, like his forefathers, in verse, which he sung to tunes. He made several lampoons upon the Huguenots, and foretold them many things which afterwards came to pass; as may be seen his Memoirs, written in French. ↩

The History of Dr. Dee and the Devil, published by Mer Casaubon, Isaac Fil, prebendary of Canterbury, has a large account of all those passages, in which the stile of the true and false angels appears to be penned by one and the same person. The Nun of Loudon, in France, and all her tricks, have been seen by many persons of quality of this nation yet living, who have made very good observations upon the French book written on that occasion. ↩

A committee of the Long Parliament, sitting in the king’s house in Woodstock Park, were