And winks and writes at random ;
Thence, with short meal and tedious grace,
In a loud tone and public place,
Sings wisdom's hymns, that trot and pace,
As if Goliah scann'd 'em.

But when Death begins his threats,
And his conscience struggles,
To call to mind his former cheats,
Then at Heav'n he turns his juggles;
And out of all's ill-gotten store,
He gives a dribbling to the poor,

In a hospital or a school-house;
And the suborned priest, for's hire,
Quite frees him from th' infernal fire,
And places him i' th' angels' choir:
Thus these Jack-puddings fool us.
All he gets by's pains i' th' close,

Is, that he died worth so much,
Which he on's doubtful seed bestows,

That neither care nor know much :
Then Fortune's favourite, his heir,
Bred base, and ignorant and bare,
Is blown up like a bubble,
Who, wond'ring at's own sudden rise,
By pride, simplicity, and vice,

Falls to's sports, drink, drab, and dice,
And makes all fly like stubble.

And the Church the other twin,
Whose mad zeal enrag'd us,

Is not purify'd a pin

By all those broils in which she engag'd us; We our wives turn'd out of doors, And took in concubines and whores,

To make an alteration.

Our pulpiteers are proud and bold, They their own wills and factions hold, And sell salvation still for gold,

And here's our reformation.

'Tis a madness then to make

Thriving our employment, And lucre love, for lucre's sake,

Since we've possession, not enjoyment. Let the times run on their course, For opposition makes them worse,

We ne'er shall better find 'em : Let grandees wealth and power engross, And honour too, while we sit close, And laugh, and take our plenteous dose Of sack, and never mind 'em.

FOR THE GENERAL'S ENTERTAINMENT.
FAREWEL, all cares and fears, let gladness come;
Let's all strive which shall most rejoice;
No more the trumpet, or the thund'ring drum,
Shall interrupt our peace with noise,
But all their offices shall be
Inherited by sprightly melody.

Th' enchanting lute, and the melodious lyre,
With well-tun'd souls does make
A full harmonious choir,

In vain do we ourselves, ourselves destroy,
In vain do English, English beat;
Contests are cruel, we must now wear joy,
And all in love, each other greet,

ON SIR G. B. HIS DEFEAT.

PRAY, why should any man complain,
Or why disturb his breast or brain,

At this new alteration?

Since that which has been done's no more

Than what has been done before,

And that which will be done again,
As long's there are ambitious men
That strive for domination.

In this mad age there's nothing firm,
All things have periods and their term,
Their rise and declinations;
Those gaudy nothings we admire,
Which get above, and shine like fire,
Are empty vapours, rais'd from dust,
Whose mock-shine past, they quickly must
Fall down like exhalations.

But still we commons must be made
A gall'd, a lame, thin, hackney jade,
And all by turns will ride us,
This side and that, no matter which,
For both do ride with spur and switch,
Till we are tir'd; and then, at last,
We stumble, and our riders cast,

'Cause they'd nor feed nor guide us.
The insulting clergy quite mistook,
In thinking kingdoms past by book,

Or crowns were got by prating;
'Tis not the black coat, but the red,
Has pow'r to make, or be the head;
Nor is it words, or oaths, or tears,
But musquets or full bandoleers

Have power of legislating.

The lawyers must lay by their book,
And study Lambert more than Cook;

The sword's the learned'st pleader;
Reports and judgments will not do't,
But 'tis dragoons, and horse and foot:
Words are but wind, but blows come home;
A stout tongu'd lawyer's but a mome,
Compar'd to a stout file-leader.

Luck, wit, or valour, rule all things,
They pull down and they set up kings,
All laws are in their bosom ;
That side is always right that's strong,
And that that's beaten must be wrong;
And he that thinks it is not so,
Unless he's sure to beat 'em too,'
Is but a fool t'oppose 'em.

Let them impose taxes or rates,
'Tis but on those that have estates,
Not such as I and thou are;
But it concerns those worldlings which
Are left, or made, or else grow rich,
Such as have studied all their days
The saving and the thriving ways,
To be the mules of power.

If they reform the church or state, We'll ne'er be troubled much thereat; Let each man take's opinion:

If we don't like the church, you know
Taverns are free, and there we go;.
And if every one would be

As clearly unconcern'd as we,
They'd ne'er fight for dominion.

Hence from my veins, from my desires be gone!
I loath thee, and defy thee!
I'll now find out a purer Helicon,
Which wits may safely feast upon,
And baffle thy hobgoblin Don;

And live to see thee and thy mongrel race
Contemn'd and rooted out of every place;
And those thou'st fool'd and wrong'd like me,
For ever, ever fly thee.

Return, return,

[fears,

AGAINST CORRUPTED SACK.

SACK! once my comfort and my dear delight,
Dull mortals' quick'ning spirit!
Thou didst once give affections, wit, and might,
Thou mad'st the lover and the wight,
Thou mad'st one die, and t'other fight;
Thou mad'st the poet, who made both, and thou
Inspir'dst our brains with genial fire, till now

Thou'st justly lost thy honour,

'Cause thou'st lost thy power and merit.

Now we depose thee from th' usurped throne,
Since thou'rt degenerate and disloyal;
Thou hast no proper father of thine own,
But art a bastard got by th' town,

By equivoque generation :

Thy bawds, the vintners, do compound thee more
Than Flavel or Besse-beer ere drudg'd a whore;
Nor canst thou now inspire nor feed,
Nor cherish; but destroy all.

Oh! where's that sprightly poetry and wit,
That should endure for ever?
Had Homer drank thy mixture, he had writ
Lines that would make the reader spit,.
Nor beyond puns would Pindar get:
Virgil and Horace, if inspir'd by thee,
Had writ but lewd and pagan poetry ;
Dull dropsi'd lines, or else as dry
And raging as a fever.

Treason's committed and contriv'd by thee,
Kingdoms and kings subverted;

'Tis thou mak'st rulers fools and cowards be,
And such as ought to bend the knee,
Madly invade the sovereignty:

Thou throw'st us on all actions, vile and fell,
First mak'st us do, and then thou mak'st us tell,
And whom we swore to serve,

By thee we basely have deserted,

Thou plague of bodies, and th' unnatural nurse
Of sickness, and physicians,

Ruin of wit, and strength, and fame, and purse,
Thou hast destroy'd poor mortals worse
Than the great plague, or Merosh curse!
In fifty-nine thou'st spilt more English blood
Than e'er in eighty-eight the Spaniard could
By his armado, or can since destroy
By's inquisitions.

THE LAMENTATION.

WRITTEN IN 1648.

MOURN, London, mourn!

Bathe thy polluted soul in tears!

Thou hast more cause of grief than th' hadst for For the whole kingdom now begins

To fell thy sorrows as they saw thy sins;
And now do no

ON THE KING'S RETURN.

LONG have we waited for a happy end
Of all our miseries and strife;
But still in vain the swordmen did intend
To make them hold for term of life,
That our distempers might be made
Their everlasting livelihood and trade.
They entail their swords and guns,

And pay, which wounded more;
Upon their daughters and their sons,
Thereby to keep us ever poor.
And when the civil wars were past,
They civil government invade;

To make our taxes and our slavery last,
Both to their titles and their trade.
But now we are redeem'd from all,

By our indulgent king;
Whose coming does prevent our fall,
With loyal and with joyful hearts we'll sing.

CHORUS.

Welcome, welcome, royal May,
Welcome, long-desired Spring!
Many springs and Mays we've seen

Have brought forth what's gay and green:
But none is like this glorious day,
Which brings forth our gracious king.

FOR GENERAL MONK HIS ENTERTAINMENT AT CLOTHWORKER'S HALL.

RING, bells! and let bonfires outblaze the Sun! Let echoes contribute their voice!

Since now a happy settlement's begun,

Let all things tell how all good men rejoice.
If these sad lands by this
Can but obtain the bliss

Of their desired, though abused peace;
We'll never, never more

Run mad, as we've heretofore,

To buy our ruin; but all strife shall cease.

The cobler shall edify us no more,

Nor shall in divinity set any stitches;

The women we will no more hear and adore,
That preach with their husbands for the breeches.
The fanatical tribe,

That will not subscribe

To the orders of church and of state,
Shall be smother'd with the zeal
Of their new commonweal,

And no man will mind what they prate.

Let not his wealth prodigious grow,
For that breeds cares and dangers,
Makes him hated above and envied below,
And a constant slave to strangers.
He is happiest of all
Whose estate is but small,

Yet enough to delight and maintain him:
He may do, they may say,
Having nothing to pay,

It will not quit costs to arraign him.
Nor must he be clogg'd with a wife;

For household cares encumber,
And do to one place confine a man's life,
'Cause he can't remove his lumber.
They're happiest by far
Who unwedded are,
And forage on all in common;
From all storms they can fly,
And if they should die,
They ruin nor child nor woman.
Nor let his brains o'erflow with wit,

That capers o'er's discretion;
'Tis costly to keep, and 'tis hard to get,
And 'tis dangerous in the possession.

They are happiest men

Who can scarce tell ten,

And beat not their brains about reason;
They may speak what will serve

- Themselves to preserve,

And their words are ne'er taken for treason.. But of all fools there is none like the wit,

For he takes pains to show it;

When his pride or his drink work him into a fit, Then straight he must be a poet.

Then his jests he flings

Both at states and at kings,

For applause and for bays and shadows,
Thinks a verse saves as well

As a circle or a spell,

'Till he drives himself to the Barbadoes. He that within these bounds can live, May baffle all disasters;

To Fortune and Fates commands he may give,
Which worldlings niake their masters.

He may sing, he may laugh,
He may dance, he may quaff,

May be mad, may be sad, may be jolly;
He may sleep without care,
And wake without fear,

And laugh at the whole world and its folly.

'Tis this that our parliaments calls and creates, Turns kings into keepers, and kingdoms to states, And peopledoms this into highdoms translates.

This plots doth devise, then discovers what th' are, This makes the great felons the lesser condemn, Sets those on the bench that should stand at the bar, [them;

Who judge such as by right ought to execute Gives the boisterous clown his unsufferable pride, Makes beggars, and fools, and usurpers to ride, While ruin'd properties run by their side.

Stamp either the arms of the state or the king,
St. George or the breeches, C. R. or O. P.
The cross and the fiddle, 'tis all the same thing;
This still is the queen, whoe'er the king be.
This lines men's religion, builds doctrines and truth,
With zeal and the spirit the factions endu'th,
To club with St. Katherine, or sweet sister Ruth.
This made our black senate to sit still so long,
To make themselves rich by making us poor;
This made our bold army so daring and strong,

And that made them drive 'em like geese out of

door.

'Twas this made the covenant-makers to make it, And this made our Levites to make us to take it, And this made both makers and takers forsake it.

This spawn'd the dunghill crew of committees and 'strators,

Who lived by picking their parliament's gums; This made and then prospered rebels and traitors, And made gentry of those that were the nation's

scums.

This herald gives arins, not for merit, but store,
Gives coats unto such as did sell coats before,
If their pockets be lin'd but with argent and ore.

'Tis this makes the lawyer give judgment, and plead
On this side, or that side, on both sides or neither;
This makes yeomen clerks, that can scarce write
or read,
[weather:
And spawns arbitrary orders as various as the
This makes the blue-lecturer pray, preach, and
prate,
[state,

Without reason or truth, against king, church, or To show the thin lining of his twice-cover'd pate.

'Tis this that makes earls, lords, knights, and

esquires,

[merit; Without breeding, descent, wit, learning, or Makes ropers and ale-drapers sheriffs of shires, Whose trade's not so low nor so base as their

For money men's lives may be purchas'd and sold; 'Tis money breaks laws, and that mends 'em again :

Men venture their quiet and safety for gold, When they won't stir a foot their rights to maintain.

This doctors createth of dunces; and those
Commanders, that use to pollute their hose,
This buys the spruce gallant his verse and his prose.

This marriages makes, 'tis the centre of love,

It draws on the man, and it pricks up the woman; Birth, virtue, and parts, no affection can move, While this makes lords bow to the brat of a broom-man.

Gives virtue and beauty to the lass that you woo, Makes women of all sorts and ages to do; 'Tis the soul of the world, and the worldling too.

This horses procures you, and hawks, hounds, and hares, [your gelding:

"Tis this keeps your groom, and your groom keeps It buys citizens' wives as well as their wares, And makes your coy ladies so coming and yielding. [spring; This buys us good sack, which revives like the This gives the poetical fancies their wing; This makes you as merry as we that do sing.

A NEW DIURNAL OF PASSAGES MORE
EXACTLY DRAWN UP THAN HERETOFORE.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED 'TIS ORDER'd to be
BY HENRY ELSING, THE CLERK OF THE P
JUNE 1, 1643.

SINCE many diurnals (for which we are griev'd)
Are come from both houses, and are not believ'd;
The better to help them for running and flying,
We have put them in verse, t' authorise their lying.

For it has been debated, and found to be true, That lying's a parliament privilege too: [hearse, And that they may the sooner our conquests reWe are minded to put them in galloping verse, But so many maim'd soldiers from Reading there [lame.

came,

That, in spite of the surgeons, make our verses go We have ever us'd fictions, and now it is known, Our poverty has made us poetical grown.

MONDAY.

On Monday both houses fell into debate,
And were likely to fall by the ears as they sat;
Yet would they not have the business decided,
That they (as the kingdom is) might be divided.
They had an intention to prayers to go,
But extempore prayers are now common too.
To voting they fall; and the key of the work
Was the raising of money for the state and the
kirk.

"Tis only free loan: yet this order they make, That what men would not lend, they should plunder

and take.

Upon this, the word plunder came into their mind, And all of them did labour a new one to find: They call'd it distraining: yet thought it no shame To persist in the act, which they blush'd for to name.

They voted all persons from Oxford that came,
Should be apprehended: and after the same,
With an humble petition, the king they request
He'd be pleas'd to return, and be serv'd like the '
A message from Oxford, conducing to peace, [rest.
Came next to their hands, that armes might cease.
They voted and voted, and still they did vary,
Till at last the whole sense of the house was con-
trary
[gain
To reason; they knew by their arms they might
What neither true reason nor law can maintain.
Cessation was voted a dangerous plot;
Because the king would have it, both houses would
But when they resolv'd, it abroad must be blown,
(To baffle the world) that the king would have none.
And carefully muzzled the mouth of the press,
Lest the truth should peep through their juggling
dress.

[not.

[harms, For they knew a cessation would work them more Than Essex could do the cavaliers with his arms. While they keep the ships and the forts in their band,

They may be traitors by sea, as well as by land. The forts will preserve them as long as they stay, And the ships carry them and their plunder away. They have therefore good reason to account war the better,

For the law will prove to them but a killing letter.

TUESDAY.

A POST from his excellence came blowing his born,
For money to advance, and this spun out the morn;
And straight to the city some went for relief,
The rest made an ordinance to carry powder-beef.
Thus up go the Round-heads, and Essex advances,
But only to lead his soldiers new dances.
To Reading he goes; for at Oxford (they say)
His wife has made bulwarks to keep him away.
Prince Rupert, for fear that the name be confounded,
Will saw off his horns, and make him a Round-
bead.

The news was returned with general fame,
That Reading was taken ere ever he came.
To show themselves valiant, when the battle was
Then away rode our captains, and soldiers did run,

done,

Preparing to plunder, but as soon as they came,
They quickly perceiv'd it was but a flam:
An ordinance of parliament Essex brought down,
But that would not serve him to batter the town.
More money was rais'd, more men and ammunition,
Carts loaded with turnips, and other provision.
His excellence had chines and rams-heads for a