By boar-spear Meleager got, An everlasting name, 270 And out of haunch of basted swine, He hew'd eternal fame. This beast each hero's trouzers ript, And rudely shew'd his bare-breech, Prickt but the wem, and out there came 275 Heroic guts and garbadge. Legs were secur'd by iron boots No more, than peas by peascods: Brass helmets, with inclosed sculls, Wou'd crackle in's mouth like chestnuts. 280 His tawny hairs erected were By rage, that was resistless; And wrath, instead of cobler's wax, Did stiffen his rising bristles. His tusk lay'd dogs so dead asleep, 285 Nor horn, nor whip cou'd wake 'um: It made them vent both their last blood, And their last album-grecum. But the knight gor'd him with his spear, To make of him a tame one, 290 And arrows thick, instead of cloves, He stuck in monster's gammon. For monumental pillar, that His victory might be known, He rais'd up, in cylindric form, 295 A collar of the brawn.
He sent his shade to shades below, In Stygian mud to wallow: And eke the stout St. George eftsoon, He made the dragon follow. 300 St. George he was for England; St. Dennis was for France; Sing, _Honi soit qui mal y pense_.
Achilles of old Chiron learnt The great horse for to ride; H' was taught by th' Centaur's rational part, 305 The hinnible to bestride. Bright silver feet, and shining face Had that stout hero's mother; As rapier's silver'd at one end, And wounds you at the other. 310 Her feet were bright, his feet were swift, As hawk pursuing sparrow: Her's had the metal, his the speed Of Braburn's[449] silver arrow. Thetis to double pedagogue 315 Commits her dearest boy; Who bred him from a slender twig To be the scourge of Troy: But ere he lash't the Trojans, h' was In Stygian waters steept; 320 As birch is soaked first in piss, When boys are to be whipt. With skin exceeding hard, he rose From lake, so black and muddy, As lobsters from the ocean rise, 325 With shell about their body: And, as from lobster's broken claw, Pick out the fish you might: So might you from one unshell'd heel Dig pieces of the knight. 330 His myrmidons robb'd Priam's barns And hen-roosts, says the song; Carried away both corn and eggs, Like ants from whence they sprung. Himself tore Hector's pantaloons, 335 And sent him down bare-breech'd To pedant Radamanthus, in A posture to be switch'd. But George he made the dragon look, As if he had been bewitch'd. 340 St. George he was for England; St. Dennis was for France; Sing, _Honi soit qui mal y pense_.