Gray tells us that the image of his bard, where

Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air

was taken from a picture by Raphael: yet the beard of Hudibras is also likened to a meteor,

This hairy meteor did denounce
The fall of sceptres and of crowns.


The lines

For he that fights and runs away
May live to fight another day,
But he that is in battle slain
Will never rise to fight again

are not to be found, as is thought, in Hudibras. Butler's verses ran thus;

For he that flies may fight again
Which he can never do that's slain.

The former are in a volume of ‘Poems’ by Sir John Mennes, reign of Charles II. The original idea is in Demosthenes. Ανερ ο φεογων και παλιν μαχησεται.