B. D.
NOTE ON A PASSAGE IN HUDIBRAS.
Butler, in his description of Hudibras, says (Part I. c. i. line 453.) that the knight
"——wore but one Spur,
As wisely knowing, cou'd he stir
To active Foot one side of 's Horse,
The other wou'd not hang an A——."
Gray, the most copious annotator on the poem, passes these lines in silence; and it is probable, therefore, that the description is taken by readers
in general as an original sketch. I find, however, in a volume entitled Gratiæ Ludentes: Jests from the Universitie, by H. L., Oxen. [sic], London, 1638, the following, which may have been in Butler's mind:—