A grace which, if I could believe,675
I've not the conscience to receive.[1]
That conscience, quoth Hudibras,
Is misinform'd; I'll state the case.
A man may be a legal donor
Of anything whereof he's owner, 680
And may confer it where he lists,
I' th' judgment of all casuists:
Then wit, and parts, and valour may
Be ali'nated, and made away,
By those that are proprietors, 685
As I may give or sell my horse.
Quoth she, I grant the case is true,
And proper twixt your horse and you;
And whether L may take, as well
As yon may give away, or sell? 690
Buyers, you know, are bid beware;[2]
And worse than thieves receivers are,
How shall I answer Hue and Cry[3]
For a roan gelding, twelve hands high.[4]
All spurr'd and switch'd, a lock on's hoof,[5]695
A sorrel mane? Can I bring proof
Where, when, by whom, and what y' were sold for,
And in the open market toll'd for?[6]
Or, should I take you for a stray,
You must be kept a year and day,[7] 700
- ↑ Conscience is here used as a word of two syllables, and in the next line as three.
- ↑ See Caveat emptor! Dict. of Classical Quotations.
- ↑ Hue and Cry was the legal notice to a neighbourhood for pursuit of a felon. See Blackstone.
- ↑ This is a galling reflection upon the knight's abilities, his complexion, and his height, which the widow intimates was not more than four feet.
- ↑ There is humour in the representation which the widow makes of the knight, under the similitude of a roan gelding, supposed to be stolen, or to have strayed. Farmers often put locks on the fore-feet of their horses, to prevent their being stolen, and the knight had his feet fast in the stocks at the time.
- ↑ This alludes to the custom enjoined by two Acts, 2 & 3 Phil. and Mary, and 31 Eliz., of tolling horses at fairs, to prevent the sale of any that might have been stolen, and help the owners to the recovery of them.
- ↑ Estrays, or cattle which came astray, were cried on two market days, and in two adjoining market towns, and if not claimed within a year and a day, they became the property of the lord of the liberty (or manor).
