ORIGIN OF A WELL-KNOWN PASSAGE IN HUDIBRAS

The often-quoted lines— "For he that fights and runs away May live to fight another day," generally supposed to form a part of *Hudibras*, are to be found (as Mr. Cunningham points out, at p. 602. of his *Handbook for London*), in the *Musarum Deliciæ*, 12mo. 1656; a clever collection of "witty trifles," by Sir John Mennis and Dr. James Smith. The passage, as it really stands in *Hudibras* (book iii. canto iii. verse 243.), is as follows:— "For those that fly may fight again, Which he can never do that's slain." But there is a much earlier authority for these lines than the Musarum Deliciæ; a…