The King's Disguise.

The Mixed Assembly(1647.) This was the famous 'Westminster' Assembly which met in July, 1643—a hodge-podge of half a score peers, a score of commoners, and about four times as many divines as laymen. Tanner MS. 465, of the Bodleian, has a poor copy of this poem; but some transpositions and omissions suggest that it preserves an earlier draft. Lines 63-6 follow 52; 71-8, 81-2, are omitted.1 Flea-bitten] As of a horse—the laymen appearing like specks on the body of clergy.2ana] Usually interpreted in the apothecary's sense, 'in equal quantities', written so in prescriptions and said to be from the Greek—ἀνάbeing thus used.6, 7 'Church and State's, Most divine'MS.19 In a fable a Royston crow (the town being on the way to Cambridge had probably a bad reputation for fleecing the guileless undergraduate) advised an innocent of his kind to drop a shellfish from a height on rocks where the Royston bird was waiting and secured the meat.281677changes 'But' to 'That'.291677inserts 'go' before 'stroke'. But Cleveland probably scanned 'I-sa-ac'. The reference is to Isaac Pennington: cf.The Rebel Scot, l. 79.30 The phrase is of course Homeric (sc.δόμους) and with its companion combines the idea of an ecclesiastical condemnation ('delivering over to Satan') and a civil execution, a writ ofelegit.32 faun] All old editions, I think, and Mr. Berdan, 'fawn'. But theanimal(always now indicated by that spelling) is not of a 'twisted nature', the half-god is.40 One of those that taught Dryden something.41 Cleveland, like most Royalists and their master, was evidently sound on Shakespeare. A copy of1677in my possession has a manuscript list of references on the fly-leaf.46 'neck-verse'] = for benefit of clergy.49 'Stript',1647,1651,1653, is evidently 'striped', and is printed 'strip'd' in1677.53 Philip Herbert, fourth Earl of Pembroke, though a patron of literature and the arts, was a man of bad character and a virulent Roundhead.55 'thy'1677: 'these'1647,1651,1653.of bulk unruly] if Vulcan rule youMS.591647,1651'Obadiahs':1653and its group 'Obadiah':1677'Obadiah's'.60 Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland—who repented too late of his rebellion and tried to prevent the consequences—seems to have joined the Roundheads out of pique (his pride was notorious) at neglect of his suggestions and interference with his powers as Lord High Admiral). By putting the fleet into the hands of the Parliament he did the King perhaps more hurt than any other single person at the beginning of the war. 'Algernoon'1647,1651: later texts spoil the point of the next line by using the conventional form.68 Fielding] Basil, the degenerate son of the first Earl of Denbigh. He actually served in the Parliamentary Army, but like Northumberland, who did not go that length, repented too late.Doxie Marshall] The Stephen Marshall ofSmectymnuusand the 'Geneva Bull' ofThe Rebel Scot, l. 21; exactly why 'Doxie' I do not know. Possibly 'prostitute' from his eager Presbyterianism. It is odd that Anne and Rebecca Marshall, two famous actresses of the Restoration to whom the term might be applied with some direct justification, used to be counted his daughters, though this is now denied.69 Twisse] William (1578-1646), the Prolocutor of the Assembly.71 Saye and Sele] William Fiennes, first Viscount (1582-1662). Of very bad reputation as a slippery customer.72 rumpled] Mr. Berdan 'rumbled', on what authority and with what meaning I do not know. 'Rumpled', which is in1647,1651,1653, and1677, no doubt refers to the untidy bands, &c. of a slovenly priest. Herbert Palmer (1604-1647) was a man of good family but a bitter Puritan. He was first Fellow and then President of Queens' College, Cambridge, where Cleveland doubtless knew him. The odd description reads like that of a sort of deformed dwarf.75 Kimbolton] Edward, Lord (1602-1671), just about to become the well-known Earl of Manchester of the Rebellion. Like Northumberland and Denbigh, he repented, but only after he had been not too politely shelved for Fairfax and Cromwell.76 Cleveland would have been delighted had he known the fate of Cornelius Burges (1589?-1665), of whom he evidently had a pretty bad idea. Burges, a Wadham and Lincoln man, was one of the leaders of the Puritans among the London clergy, and a great favourite with the House of Commons in the Long Parliament. He wanted to suppress cathedrals; and, being a practical man and preacher at Wells during the Commonwealth, did his best by buying the deanery and part of the estates. Wherefore he was promptly and properly ruined by the Restoration, and died in well-deserved poverty. He was vice-president of the Westminster Assembly.79 Oliver Bowles, a Puritan divine.1653omits the comma after 'sadness' found in1651,—a neat punctuation, meaning 'in good sadness, he cannot dance'. Phrases like 'in good truth', 'in good sadnesse' were the utmost licence of speech which the Puritans permitted themselves.81 Philip, fourth Lord Wharton (1613-1696) took the anti-Royalist side very early, but cut a very poor figure at Edgehill and abandoned active service. He did not figure under the Commonwealth, but was a zealous Whig after the Restoration, and a prominent Williamite in the last years of his long life. Who 'Lidy' (1653) or 'Lidie' (1677) was seems unknown. Professor Firth suggests a misprint for 'Sidie,' i.e. Sidrach Simpson (1600?-1655), a busy London Puritan and member of the Assembly. Another ingenious suggestion made to me is that 'mumping Lid[d]y' may be one of the queer dance-names of the period, or actually a woman, Wharton being no enemy to the sex. But I do not know that there was such a dance, and as all the other pairs are males, being members of the Assembly, it would be odd if there were an exception here. For 'Here'1647,1651read 'Her'.88 The exceptional position of Selden is well hit off here. His character and his earning were just able to neutralize, though not to overcome, the curse of Laodicea.95 'Brooke' is Robert Brooke, second Lord Brooke, cousin and successor of Fulke Greville—the 'fanatic Brooke' who had his 'guerdon meet' by being shot in his attack on Lichfield Cathedral.Mercurius Anti-Britannicus, 1645, p. 23, has:Like my Lord Brooke'sCoachmanPreaching out of a tub.(I owe this citation to Mr. Simpson.)

The Mixed Assembly(1647.) This was the famous 'Westminster' Assembly which met in July, 1643—a hodge-podge of half a score peers, a score of commoners, and about four times as many divines as laymen. Tanner MS. 465, of the Bodleian, has a poor copy of this poem; but some transpositions and omissions suggest that it preserves an earlier draft. Lines 63-6 follow 52; 71-8, 81-2, are omitted.

1 Flea-bitten] As of a horse—the laymen appearing like specks on the body of clergy.

2ana] Usually interpreted in the apothecary's sense, 'in equal quantities', written so in prescriptions and said to be from the Greek—ἀνάbeing thus used.

6, 7 'Church and State's, Most divine'MS.

19 In a fable a Royston crow (the town being on the way to Cambridge had probably a bad reputation for fleecing the guileless undergraduate) advised an innocent of his kind to drop a shellfish from a height on rocks where the Royston bird was waiting and secured the meat.

281677changes 'But' to 'That'.

291677inserts 'go' before 'stroke'. But Cleveland probably scanned 'I-sa-ac'. The reference is to Isaac Pennington: cf.The Rebel Scot, l. 79.

30 The phrase is of course Homeric (sc.δόμους) and with its companion combines the idea of an ecclesiastical condemnation ('delivering over to Satan') and a civil execution, a writ ofelegit.

32 faun] All old editions, I think, and Mr. Berdan, 'fawn'. But theanimal(always now indicated by that spelling) is not of a 'twisted nature', the half-god is.

40 One of those that taught Dryden something.

41 Cleveland, like most Royalists and their master, was evidently sound on Shakespeare. A copy of1677in my possession has a manuscript list of references on the fly-leaf.

46 'neck-verse'] = for benefit of clergy.

49 'Stript',1647,1651,1653, is evidently 'striped', and is printed 'strip'd' in1677.

53 Philip Herbert, fourth Earl of Pembroke, though a patron of literature and the arts, was a man of bad character and a virulent Roundhead.

55 'thy'1677: 'these'1647,1651,1653.of bulk unruly] if Vulcan rule youMS.

591647,1651'Obadiahs':1653and its group 'Obadiah':1677'Obadiah's'.

60 Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland—who repented too late of his rebellion and tried to prevent the consequences—seems to have joined the Roundheads out of pique (his pride was notorious) at neglect of his suggestions and interference with his powers as Lord High Admiral). By putting the fleet into the hands of the Parliament he did the King perhaps more hurt than any other single person at the beginning of the war. 'Algernoon'1647,1651: later texts spoil the point of the next line by using the conventional form.

68 Fielding] Basil, the degenerate son of the first Earl of Denbigh. He actually served in the Parliamentary Army, but like Northumberland, who did not go that length, repented too late.

Doxie Marshall] The Stephen Marshall ofSmectymnuusand the 'Geneva Bull' ofThe Rebel Scot, l. 21; exactly why 'Doxie' I do not know. Possibly 'prostitute' from his eager Presbyterianism. It is odd that Anne and Rebecca Marshall, two famous actresses of the Restoration to whom the term might be applied with some direct justification, used to be counted his daughters, though this is now denied.

69 Twisse] William (1578-1646), the Prolocutor of the Assembly.

71 Saye and Sele] William Fiennes, first Viscount (1582-1662). Of very bad reputation as a slippery customer.

72 rumpled] Mr. Berdan 'rumbled', on what authority and with what meaning I do not know. 'Rumpled', which is in1647,1651,1653, and1677, no doubt refers to the untidy bands, &c. of a slovenly priest. Herbert Palmer (1604-1647) was a man of good family but a bitter Puritan. He was first Fellow and then President of Queens' College, Cambridge, where Cleveland doubtless knew him. The odd description reads like that of a sort of deformed dwarf.

75 Kimbolton] Edward, Lord (1602-1671), just about to become the well-known Earl of Manchester of the Rebellion. Like Northumberland and Denbigh, he repented, but only after he had been not too politely shelved for Fairfax and Cromwell.

76 Cleveland would have been delighted had he known the fate of Cornelius Burges (1589?-1665), of whom he evidently had a pretty bad idea. Burges, a Wadham and Lincoln man, was one of the leaders of the Puritans among the London clergy, and a great favourite with the House of Commons in the Long Parliament. He wanted to suppress cathedrals; and, being a practical man and preacher at Wells during the Commonwealth, did his best by buying the deanery and part of the estates. Wherefore he was promptly and properly ruined by the Restoration, and died in well-deserved poverty. He was vice-president of the Westminster Assembly.

79 Oliver Bowles, a Puritan divine.1653omits the comma after 'sadness' found in1651,—a neat punctuation, meaning 'in good sadness, he cannot dance'. Phrases like 'in good truth', 'in good sadnesse' were the utmost licence of speech which the Puritans permitted themselves.

81 Philip, fourth Lord Wharton (1613-1696) took the anti-Royalist side very early, but cut a very poor figure at Edgehill and abandoned active service. He did not figure under the Commonwealth, but was a zealous Whig after the Restoration, and a prominent Williamite in the last years of his long life. Who 'Lidy' (1653) or 'Lidie' (1677) was seems unknown. Professor Firth suggests a misprint for 'Sidie,' i.e. Sidrach Simpson (1600?-1655), a busy London Puritan and member of the Assembly. Another ingenious suggestion made to me is that 'mumping Lid[d]y' may be one of the queer dance-names of the period, or actually a woman, Wharton being no enemy to the sex. But I do not know that there was such a dance, and as all the other pairs are males, being members of the Assembly, it would be odd if there were an exception here. For 'Here'1647,1651read 'Her'.

88 The exceptional position of Selden is well hit off here. His character and his earning were just able to neutralize, though not to overcome, the curse of Laodicea.

95 'Brooke' is Robert Brooke, second Lord Brooke, cousin and successor of Fulke Greville—the 'fanatic Brooke' who had his 'guerdon meet' by being shot in his attack on Lichfield Cathedral.Mercurius Anti-Britannicus, 1645, p. 23, has:

Like my Lord Brooke'sCoachmanPreaching out of a tub.

Like my Lord Brooke'sCoachmanPreaching out of a tub.

Like my Lord Brooke'sCoachman

Preaching out of a tub.

(I owe this citation to Mr. Simpson.)

And why a tenant to this vile disguiseWhich who but sees, blasphemes thee with his eyes?My twins of light within their penthouse shrink,And hold it their allegiance now to wink.O, for a state-distinction to arraignCharles of high treason 'gainst my Sovereign!What an usurper to his prince is wont,Cloister and shave him, he himself hath don' 't.His muffled feature speaks him a recluse—10His ruins prove him a religious house!The sun hath mewed his beams from off his lampAnd majesty defaced the royal stamp.Is 't not enough thy dignity 's in thrall,But thou'lt transmute it in thy shape and all,As if thy blacks were of too faint a dyeWithout the tincture of tautology?Flay an Egyptian for his cassock skin,Spun of his country's darkness, line 't withinWith Presbyterian budge, that drowsy trance,20The Synod's sable, foggy Ignorance;Nor bodily nor ghostly negro couldRoughcast thy figure in a sadder mould.This privy-chamber of thy shape would beBut the close mourner of thy Royalty.Then, break the circle of thy tailor's spell,A pearl within a rugged oyster's shell.Heaven, which the minster of thy person owns,Will fine thee for dilapidations.Like to a martyred abbey's coarser doom,30Devoutly altered to a pigeon-room;Or like a college by the changeling rabble,Manchester's elves, transformed into a stable;Or if there be a profanation higher;Such is the sacrilege of thine attire,By which thou'rt half deposed.—Thou look'st like oneWhose looks are under sequestration;Whose renegado form at the first glanceShows like the Self-denying Ordinance;Angel of light, and darkness too, (I doubt)40Inspired within and yet possessed without;Majestic twilight in the state of grace,Yet with an excommunicated face.Charles and his mask are of a different mint;A psalm of mercy in a miscreant print.The sun wears midnight, day is beetle-browed,And lightning is in kelder of a cloud.O the accursed stenography of fate!The princely eagle shrunk into a bat!What charm, what magic vapour can it be50That checks his rays to this apostasy?It is no subtile film of tiffany air,No cobweb vizard such as ladies wear,When they are veiled on purpose to be seen,Doubling their lustre by their vanquished screen.No, the false scabbard of a prince is toughAnd three-piled darkness, like the smoky sloughOf an imprisoned flame; 'tis Faux in grain;Dark lantern to our bright meridian.Hell belched the damp; the Warwick Castle vote60Rang Britain's curfew, so our light went out.[A black offender, should he wear his sinFor penance, could not have a darker skin.]His visage is not legible; the lettersLike a lord's name writ in fantastic fetters;Clothes where a Switzer might be buried quick;Sure they would fit the body politic;False beard enough to fit a stage's plot(For that 's the ambush of their wit, God wot),Nay, all his properties so strange appear,70Y' are not i' th' presence though the King be there.A libel is his dress, a garb uncouth,Such as theHue and Cryonce purged at mouth.Scribbling assassinate! Thy lines attestAn earmark due, Cub of the Blatant Beast;Whose breath, before 'tis syllabled for worse,Is blasphemy unfledged, a callow curse.The Laplanders, when they would sell a windWafting to hell, bag up thy phrase and bindIt to the bark, which at the voyage end80Shifts poop and breeds the colic in the Fiend.But I'll not dub thee with a glorious scarNor sink thy sculler with a man-of-war.The black-mouthedSi quisand this slandering suitBoth do alike in picture execute.But since w' are all called Papists, why not dateDevotion to the rags thus consecrate?As temples use to have their porches wroughtWith sphinxes, creatures of an antic draught,And puzzling portraitures to show that there90Riddles inhabited; the like is here.But pardon, Sir, since I presume to beClerk of this closet to your Majesty.Methinks in this your dark mysterious dressI see the Gospel couched in parables.At my next view my purblind fancy ripesAnd shows Religion in its dusky types;Such a text royal, so obscure a shadeWas Solomon in Proverbs all arrayed.Come, all the brats of this expounding age100To whom the spirit is in pupilage,You that damn more than ever Samson slew,And with his engine, the same jaw-bone too!How is 't he 'scapes your inquisition freeSince bound up in the Bible's livery?Hence, Cabinet-intruders! Pick-locks, hence!You, that dim jewels with your Bristol sense:And characters, like witches, so tormentTill they confess a guilt though innocent!Keys for this coffer you can never get;110None but St. Peter's opes this cabinet,This cabinet, whose aspect would benightCritic spectators with redundant light.A Prince most seen is least. What Scriptures callThe Revelation, is most mystical.Mount then, thou Shadow Royal, and with hasteAdvance thy morning-star, Charles, overcast.May thy strange journey contradictions twistAnd force fair weather from a Scottish mist.Heaven's confessors are posed, those star-eyed sages,120T' interpret an eclipse thus riding stages.Thus Israel-like he travels with a cloud,Both as a conduct to him and a shroud.But oh, he goes to Gibeon and renewsA league with mouldy bread and clouted shoes!

And why a tenant to this vile disguiseWhich who but sees, blasphemes thee with his eyes?My twins of light within their penthouse shrink,And hold it their allegiance now to wink.O, for a state-distinction to arraignCharles of high treason 'gainst my Sovereign!What an usurper to his prince is wont,Cloister and shave him, he himself hath don' 't.His muffled feature speaks him a recluse—10His ruins prove him a religious house!The sun hath mewed his beams from off his lampAnd majesty defaced the royal stamp.Is 't not enough thy dignity 's in thrall,But thou'lt transmute it in thy shape and all,As if thy blacks were of too faint a dyeWithout the tincture of tautology?Flay an Egyptian for his cassock skin,Spun of his country's darkness, line 't withinWith Presbyterian budge, that drowsy trance,20The Synod's sable, foggy Ignorance;Nor bodily nor ghostly negro couldRoughcast thy figure in a sadder mould.This privy-chamber of thy shape would beBut the close mourner of thy Royalty.Then, break the circle of thy tailor's spell,A pearl within a rugged oyster's shell.Heaven, which the minster of thy person owns,Will fine thee for dilapidations.Like to a martyred abbey's coarser doom,30Devoutly altered to a pigeon-room;Or like a college by the changeling rabble,Manchester's elves, transformed into a stable;Or if there be a profanation higher;Such is the sacrilege of thine attire,By which thou'rt half deposed.—Thou look'st like oneWhose looks are under sequestration;Whose renegado form at the first glanceShows like the Self-denying Ordinance;Angel of light, and darkness too, (I doubt)40Inspired within and yet possessed without;Majestic twilight in the state of grace,Yet with an excommunicated face.Charles and his mask are of a different mint;A psalm of mercy in a miscreant print.The sun wears midnight, day is beetle-browed,And lightning is in kelder of a cloud.O the accursed stenography of fate!The princely eagle shrunk into a bat!What charm, what magic vapour can it be50That checks his rays to this apostasy?It is no subtile film of tiffany air,No cobweb vizard such as ladies wear,When they are veiled on purpose to be seen,Doubling their lustre by their vanquished screen.No, the false scabbard of a prince is toughAnd three-piled darkness, like the smoky sloughOf an imprisoned flame; 'tis Faux in grain;Dark lantern to our bright meridian.Hell belched the damp; the Warwick Castle vote60Rang Britain's curfew, so our light went out.[A black offender, should he wear his sinFor penance, could not have a darker skin.]His visage is not legible; the lettersLike a lord's name writ in fantastic fetters;Clothes where a Switzer might be buried quick;Sure they would fit the body politic;False beard enough to fit a stage's plot(For that 's the ambush of their wit, God wot),Nay, all his properties so strange appear,70Y' are not i' th' presence though the King be there.A libel is his dress, a garb uncouth,Such as theHue and Cryonce purged at mouth.Scribbling assassinate! Thy lines attestAn earmark due, Cub of the Blatant Beast;Whose breath, before 'tis syllabled for worse,Is blasphemy unfledged, a callow curse.The Laplanders, when they would sell a windWafting to hell, bag up thy phrase and bindIt to the bark, which at the voyage end80Shifts poop and breeds the colic in the Fiend.But I'll not dub thee with a glorious scarNor sink thy sculler with a man-of-war.The black-mouthedSi quisand this slandering suitBoth do alike in picture execute.But since w' are all called Papists, why not dateDevotion to the rags thus consecrate?As temples use to have their porches wroughtWith sphinxes, creatures of an antic draught,And puzzling portraitures to show that there90Riddles inhabited; the like is here.But pardon, Sir, since I presume to beClerk of this closet to your Majesty.Methinks in this your dark mysterious dressI see the Gospel couched in parables.At my next view my purblind fancy ripesAnd shows Religion in its dusky types;Such a text royal, so obscure a shadeWas Solomon in Proverbs all arrayed.Come, all the brats of this expounding age100To whom the spirit is in pupilage,You that damn more than ever Samson slew,And with his engine, the same jaw-bone too!How is 't he 'scapes your inquisition freeSince bound up in the Bible's livery?Hence, Cabinet-intruders! Pick-locks, hence!You, that dim jewels with your Bristol sense:And characters, like witches, so tormentTill they confess a guilt though innocent!Keys for this coffer you can never get;110None but St. Peter's opes this cabinet,This cabinet, whose aspect would benightCritic spectators with redundant light.A Prince most seen is least. What Scriptures callThe Revelation, is most mystical.Mount then, thou Shadow Royal, and with hasteAdvance thy morning-star, Charles, overcast.May thy strange journey contradictions twistAnd force fair weather from a Scottish mist.Heaven's confessors are posed, those star-eyed sages,120T' interpret an eclipse thus riding stages.Thus Israel-like he travels with a cloud,Both as a conduct to him and a shroud.But oh, he goes to Gibeon and renewsA league with mouldy bread and clouted shoes!

And why a tenant to this vile disguise

Which who but sees, blasphemes thee with his eyes?

My twins of light within their penthouse shrink,

And hold it their allegiance now to wink.

O, for a state-distinction to arraign

Charles of high treason 'gainst my Sovereign!

What an usurper to his prince is wont,

Cloister and shave him, he himself hath don' 't.

His muffled feature speaks him a recluse—

10His ruins prove him a religious house!

The sun hath mewed his beams from off his lamp

And majesty defaced the royal stamp.

Is 't not enough thy dignity 's in thrall,

But thou'lt transmute it in thy shape and all,

As if thy blacks were of too faint a dye

Without the tincture of tautology?

Flay an Egyptian for his cassock skin,

Spun of his country's darkness, line 't within

With Presbyterian budge, that drowsy trance,

20The Synod's sable, foggy Ignorance;

Nor bodily nor ghostly negro could

Roughcast thy figure in a sadder mould.

This privy-chamber of thy shape would be

But the close mourner of thy Royalty.

Then, break the circle of thy tailor's spell,

A pearl within a rugged oyster's shell.

Heaven, which the minster of thy person owns,

Will fine thee for dilapidations.

Like to a martyred abbey's coarser doom,

30Devoutly altered to a pigeon-room;

Or like a college by the changeling rabble,

Manchester's elves, transformed into a stable;

Or if there be a profanation higher;

Such is the sacrilege of thine attire,

By which thou'rt half deposed.—Thou look'st like one

Whose looks are under sequestration;

Whose renegado form at the first glance

Shows like the Self-denying Ordinance;

Angel of light, and darkness too, (I doubt)

40Inspired within and yet possessed without;

Majestic twilight in the state of grace,

Yet with an excommunicated face.

Charles and his mask are of a different mint;

A psalm of mercy in a miscreant print.

The sun wears midnight, day is beetle-browed,

And lightning is in kelder of a cloud.

O the accursed stenography of fate!

The princely eagle shrunk into a bat!

What charm, what magic vapour can it be

50That checks his rays to this apostasy?

It is no subtile film of tiffany air,

No cobweb vizard such as ladies wear,

When they are veiled on purpose to be seen,

Doubling their lustre by their vanquished screen.

No, the false scabbard of a prince is tough

And three-piled darkness, like the smoky slough

Of an imprisoned flame; 'tis Faux in grain;

Dark lantern to our bright meridian.

Hell belched the damp; the Warwick Castle vote

60Rang Britain's curfew, so our light went out.

[A black offender, should he wear his sin

For penance, could not have a darker skin.]

His visage is not legible; the letters

Like a lord's name writ in fantastic fetters;

Clothes where a Switzer might be buried quick;

Sure they would fit the body politic;

False beard enough to fit a stage's plot

(For that 's the ambush of their wit, God wot),

Nay, all his properties so strange appear,

70Y' are not i' th' presence though the King be there.

A libel is his dress, a garb uncouth,

Such as theHue and Cryonce purged at mouth.

Scribbling assassinate! Thy lines attest

An earmark due, Cub of the Blatant Beast;

Whose breath, before 'tis syllabled for worse,

Is blasphemy unfledged, a callow curse.

The Laplanders, when they would sell a wind

Wafting to hell, bag up thy phrase and bind

It to the bark, which at the voyage end

80Shifts poop and breeds the colic in the Fiend.

But I'll not dub thee with a glorious scar

Nor sink thy sculler with a man-of-war.

The black-mouthedSi quisand this slandering suit

Both do alike in picture execute.

But since w' are all called Papists, why not date

Devotion to the rags thus consecrate?

As temples use to have their porches wrought

With sphinxes, creatures of an antic draught,

And puzzling portraitures to show that there

90Riddles inhabited; the like is here.

But pardon, Sir, since I presume to be

Clerk of this closet to your Majesty.

Methinks in this your dark mysterious dress

I see the Gospel couched in parables.

At my next view my purblind fancy ripes

And shows Religion in its dusky types;

Such a text royal, so obscure a shade

Was Solomon in Proverbs all arrayed.

Come, all the brats of this expounding age

100To whom the spirit is in pupilage,

You that damn more than ever Samson slew,

And with his engine, the same jaw-bone too!

How is 't he 'scapes your inquisition free

Since bound up in the Bible's livery?

Hence, Cabinet-intruders! Pick-locks, hence!

You, that dim jewels with your Bristol sense:

And characters, like witches, so torment

Till they confess a guilt though innocent!

Keys for this coffer you can never get;

110None but St. Peter's opes this cabinet,

This cabinet, whose aspect would benight

Critic spectators with redundant light.

A Prince most seen is least. What Scriptures call

The Revelation, is most mystical.

Mount then, thou Shadow Royal, and with haste

Advance thy morning-star, Charles, overcast.

May thy strange journey contradictions twist

And force fair weather from a Scottish mist.

Heaven's confessors are posed, those star-eyed sages,

120T' interpret an eclipse thus riding stages.

Thus Israel-like he travels with a cloud,

Both as a conduct to him and a shroud.

But oh, he goes to Gibeon and renews

A league with mouldy bread and clouted shoes!

The Kings Disguise.] That assumed on the fatal journey from Oxford to the camp of the Scots. (First printed as a quarto pamphlet of four leaves; Thomason bought his copy on 21 January, 1647; reprinted in the 1647Poems. Vaughan wrote a poem on the same subject about the same time.)1 a tenant to] so coffin'd in1677.2 Which] That1677.4:1677omits 'now', rather to one's surprise, as the value 'allegi-ance' is of the first rather than of the second half of the century. It is therefore probably right.14 transmute] transcribe1677. The two readings obviously pertain to two different senses of 'blacks'—'clothes' and 'ink'.17 for] from1647(pamphlet).18 line 't] lin'de1647(pamphlet).19 The1677'Vindicators' had forgotten 'budge' in the sense of 'fur' (perhaps they were too loyal to read Milton) and made it 'badge'.201651,1653'Synod', with no hyphen but perhaps meant for a compound. The genitive is perhaps better. The comma at 'sable', which Mr. Berdan omits, is important.21-2 The error of those who say that such a rhyme points to the pronunciation of thelin words like 'could' is sufficiently shown by the fact that 'coud' is frequent. It is, of course, a mere eye-rhyme, like many of Spenser's earlier. 'No bodily'1647(pamphlet).23 shape] garb1677.24 of] to1677.25 'Twill break'1647,1653. tailor's] jailor's1647,1651,1653.291653, but obviously by a mere misprint, 'courser'.311647,1651,1653'thecollege'. It is said that the definite article usually at this time designates 'the Collegeof Physicians'. But, as Mr. Berdan well observes, 'the case was unfortunately too common to admit of identification'. Cleveland's restless wit was not idle in calling 'Manchester's elves'—the Parliamentary troops—'changelings'. The soldier ought to be a King's man: and indeed pretended to be.321647(pamphlet) 'reformed'.40 This and l. 47 are examples of the Drydenian line before Dryden, so frequent in Cleveland.46 = 'The unborn child of a cloud'.47 Alliteration, and some plausibility of verse, seduced1677into 'of State', but I think 'fate' is better.50 checks] shrinks1647,1651,1653.55-61647,1651,1653readNorthe false scabbard of a Prince'stoughMetaland three-piled darkness like the slough.Some fight might be made for 'Metal', but 'Nor' is indefensible. I am half inclined to transfer it above to l. 52 and take 'No' thence. The text, which is1677, is I suppose a correction. Both1647texts mark 'slough' with an asterisk, and have a marginal note 'A damp in coal-pits usual'.57 I cannot understand what Mr. Berdan—who prints 'Fawkes'—means by saying it is not authorized by any edition, whereas his own apparatus gives 'Faux' in every one. It is a mere question of spelling. 'Three-piled darkness' equally surrounds to me his further remark that he 'adopted it as the only reading approximating sense;treason in grain'. The metaphor of the dark lantern cloaked is surely clear enough; and this 'in grain' is one of the innumerable passages showing the rashness of invariably interpreting 'in grain' as = 'with the grain of the cochineal insect'. Beyond all doubt it has the simple sense ofpenitus, 'inward'.58 bright] high1647,1653.59 the Warwick Castle vote] The Resolution of the Commons on May 6, 1646, that the King, after the Scots sold him, should be lodged in Warwick Castle.61-2 Not in1647,1651,1653and its group, but added in1677.631647,1651,1653'Thyvisage'.671677has the very considerable and not at once acceptable alteration of 'thatch a poet's plot'. But it may have been Cleveland.721647,1651, again give an asterisked note, 'Britanicus', showing the definite, not general, reference of 'Hue and Cry'. It seems thatMercurius Britannicusdid issue a 'Hue and Cry' after the King, for which the editor, Captain Audley, was put in the Gate-house till he apologized.751651'wreath', corrupted into 'wrath' in1653.76 Blount stupidly thought 'callow' to mean 'lewd or wicked', as if 'unfledged' did not ratify the usual sense.80 breeds] brings1647,1651.83Si quis] The first words of a formal inquiry as to disqualifications in a candidate for orders, &c. It would apply to the Hue and Cry itself.85 It being a favourite Puritan trick to identify 'Royalist' with 'Papist'. 'Date' apparently in the sense of 'begin', which it usually has only as neuter.89 puzzling]1677and its followers 'purling', with no sense.951677'The second view' and 'wipes'.106 Bristol] as of diamonds.109 coffer] cipher1677, &c.110 opes] ope1677.116 'Charles'1677:1647,1651,1653,by a clear error 'Charles's'.120 'T' interpret an'1647(pamphlet): 'To interpret an'1647(Poems)1653,1677.1651omits 'To' and reads the 'an' which seems bad in metre and meaning alike.

The Kings Disguise.] That assumed on the fatal journey from Oxford to the camp of the Scots. (First printed as a quarto pamphlet of four leaves; Thomason bought his copy on 21 January, 1647; reprinted in the 1647Poems. Vaughan wrote a poem on the same subject about the same time.)

1 a tenant to] so coffin'd in1677.

2 Which] That1677.

4:1677omits 'now', rather to one's surprise, as the value 'allegi-ance' is of the first rather than of the second half of the century. It is therefore probably right.

14 transmute] transcribe1677. The two readings obviously pertain to two different senses of 'blacks'—'clothes' and 'ink'.

17 for] from1647(pamphlet).

18 line 't] lin'de1647(pamphlet).

19 The1677'Vindicators' had forgotten 'budge' in the sense of 'fur' (perhaps they were too loyal to read Milton) and made it 'badge'.

201651,1653'Synod', with no hyphen but perhaps meant for a compound. The genitive is perhaps better. The comma at 'sable', which Mr. Berdan omits, is important.

21-2 The error of those who say that such a rhyme points to the pronunciation of thelin words like 'could' is sufficiently shown by the fact that 'coud' is frequent. It is, of course, a mere eye-rhyme, like many of Spenser's earlier. 'No bodily'1647(pamphlet).

23 shape] garb1677.

24 of] to1677.

25 'Twill break'1647,1653. tailor's] jailor's1647,1651,1653.

291653, but obviously by a mere misprint, 'courser'.

311647,1651,1653'thecollege'. It is said that the definite article usually at this time designates 'the Collegeof Physicians'. But, as Mr. Berdan well observes, 'the case was unfortunately too common to admit of identification'. Cleveland's restless wit was not idle in calling 'Manchester's elves'—the Parliamentary troops—'changelings'. The soldier ought to be a King's man: and indeed pretended to be.

321647(pamphlet) 'reformed'.

40 This and l. 47 are examples of the Drydenian line before Dryden, so frequent in Cleveland.

46 = 'The unborn child of a cloud'.

47 Alliteration, and some plausibility of verse, seduced1677into 'of State', but I think 'fate' is better.

50 checks] shrinks1647,1651,1653.

55-61647,1651,1653read

Northe false scabbard of a Prince'stoughMetaland three-piled darkness like the slough.

Northe false scabbard of a Prince'stoughMetaland three-piled darkness like the slough.

Northe false scabbard of a Prince'stough

Metaland three-piled darkness like the slough.

Some fight might be made for 'Metal', but 'Nor' is indefensible. I am half inclined to transfer it above to l. 52 and take 'No' thence. The text, which is1677, is I suppose a correction. Both1647texts mark 'slough' with an asterisk, and have a marginal note 'A damp in coal-pits usual'.

57 I cannot understand what Mr. Berdan—who prints 'Fawkes'—means by saying it is not authorized by any edition, whereas his own apparatus gives 'Faux' in every one. It is a mere question of spelling. 'Three-piled darkness' equally surrounds to me his further remark that he 'adopted it as the only reading approximating sense;treason in grain'. The metaphor of the dark lantern cloaked is surely clear enough; and this 'in grain' is one of the innumerable passages showing the rashness of invariably interpreting 'in grain' as = 'with the grain of the cochineal insect'. Beyond all doubt it has the simple sense ofpenitus, 'inward'.

58 bright] high1647,1653.

59 the Warwick Castle vote] The Resolution of the Commons on May 6, 1646, that the King, after the Scots sold him, should be lodged in Warwick Castle.

61-2 Not in1647,1651,1653and its group, but added in1677.

631647,1651,1653'Thyvisage'.

671677has the very considerable and not at once acceptable alteration of 'thatch a poet's plot'. But it may have been Cleveland.

721647,1651, again give an asterisked note, 'Britanicus', showing the definite, not general, reference of 'Hue and Cry'. It seems thatMercurius Britannicusdid issue a 'Hue and Cry' after the King, for which the editor, Captain Audley, was put in the Gate-house till he apologized.

751651'wreath', corrupted into 'wrath' in1653.

76 Blount stupidly thought 'callow' to mean 'lewd or wicked', as if 'unfledged' did not ratify the usual sense.

80 breeds] brings1647,1651.

83Si quis] The first words of a formal inquiry as to disqualifications in a candidate for orders, &c. It would apply to the Hue and Cry itself.

85 It being a favourite Puritan trick to identify 'Royalist' with 'Papist'. 'Date' apparently in the sense of 'begin', which it usually has only as neuter.

89 puzzling]1677and its followers 'purling', with no sense.

951677'The second view' and 'wipes'.

106 Bristol] as of diamonds.

109 coffer] cipher1677, &c.

110 opes] ope1677.

116 'Charles'1677:1647,1651,1653,by a clear error 'Charles's'.

120 'T' interpret an'1647(pamphlet): 'To interpret an'1647(Poems)1653,1677.1651omits 'To' and reads the 'an' which seems bad in metre and meaning alike.

How, Providence? and yet a Scottish crew?Then Madam Nature wears black patches too!What? shall our nation be in bondage thusUnto a land that truckles under us?Ring the bells backward! I am all on fire.Not all the buckets in a country quireShall quench my rage. A poet should be feared,When angry, like a comet's flaming beard.And where 's the stoic can his wrath appease,10To see his country sick of Pym's disease?By Scotch invasion to be made a preyTo such pigwiggin myrmidons as they?But that there 's charm in verse, I would not quoteThe name of Scot without an antidote;Unless my head were red, that I might brewInvention there that might be poison too.Were I a drowsy judge whose dismal noteDisgorgeth halters as a juggler's throatDoth ribbons; could I in Sir Emp'ric's tone20Speak pills in phrase and quack destruction;Or roar like Marshall, that Geneva bull,Hell and damnation a pulpit full;Yet to express a Scot, to play that prize,Not all those mouth-grenadoes can suffice.Before a Scot can properly be curst,I must like Hocus swallow daggers first.Come, keen iambics, with your badger's feetAnd badger-like bite till your teeth do meet.Help, ye tart satirists, to imp my rage30With all the scorpions that should whip this age.Scots are like witches; do but whet your pen,Scratch till the blood come, they'll not hurt you then.Now, as the martyrs were enforced to takeThe shapes of beasts, like hypocrites, at stake,I'll bait my Scot so, yet not cheat your eyes;A Scot within a beast is no disguise.No more let Ireland brag her harmless nationFosters no venom since the Scot's plantation:Nor can ours feigned antiquity maintain;40Since they came in, England hath wolves again.The Scot that kept the Tower might have shown,Within the grate of his own breast alone,The leopard and the panther, and engrossedWhat all those wild collegiates had costThe honest high-shoes in their termly fees;First to the salvage lawyer, next to these.Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess,Making their country such a wilderness:A land that brings in question and suspense50God's omnipresence, but that Charles came thence,But that Montrose and Crawford's loyal bandAtoned their sins and christ'ned half the land.Nor is it all the nation hath these spots;There is a Church as well as Kirk of Scots.As in a picture where the squinting paintShows fiend on this side, and on that side saint.He, that saw Hell in 's melancholy dreamAnd in the twilight of his fancy's theme,Scared from his sins, repented in a fright,60Had he viewed Scotland, had turned proselyte.A land where one may pray with cursed intent,'Oh may they never suffer banishment!'Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom;Not forced him wander but confined him home!Like Jews they spread and as infection fly,As if the Devil had ubiquity.Hence 'tis they live at rovers and defyThis or that place, rags of geography.They're citizens o' th' world; they're all in all;70Scotland's a nation epidemical.And yet they ramble not to learn the mode,How to be dressed, or how to lisp abroad;To return knowing in the Spanish shrug,Or which of the Dutch States a double jugResembles most in belly or in beard,(The card by which the mariners are steered).No, the Scots-errant fight and fight to eat,Their Ostrich stomachs make their swords their meat.Nature with Scots as tooth-drawers hath dealt80Who use to hang their teeth upon their belt.Yet wonder not at this their happy choice,The serpent 's fatal still to Paradise.Sure, England hath the hemorrhoids, and theseOn the north postern of the patient seizeLike leeches; thus they physically thirstAfter our blood, but in the cure shall burst!Let them not think to make us run o' th' scoreTo purchase villenage, as once beforeWhen an act passed to stroke them on the head,90Call them good subjects, buy them gingerbread.Not gold, nor acts of grace, 'tis steel must tameThe stubborn Scot; a Prince that would reclaimRebels by yielding, doth like him, or worse,Who saddled his own back to shame his horse.Was it for this you left your leaner soil,Thus to lard Israel with Egypt's spoil?They are the Gospel's life-guard; but for them,The garrison of New Jerusalem,What would the brethren do? The Cause! The Cause!100Sack-possets and the fundamental laws!Lord! what a godly thing is want of shirts!How a Scotch stomach and no meat converts!They wanted food and raiment, so they tookReligion for their seamstress and their cook.Unmask them well; their honours and estate,As well as conscience, are sophisticate.Shrive but their titles and their money poise,A laird and twenty pence pronounced with noise,When construed, but for a plain yeoman go,110And a good sober two-pence; and well so.Hence then, you proud impostors; get you gone,You Picts in gentry and devotion;You scandal to the stock of verse, a raceAble to bring the gibbet in disgrace.Hyperbolus by suffering did traduceThe ostracism and shamed it out of use.The Indian, that Heaven did forswearBecause he heard some Spaniards were there,Had he but known what Scots in Hell had been,120He would Erasmus-like have hung between.My Muse hath done. A voider for the nonce!I wrong the Devil should I pick their bones;That dish is his; for, when the Scots decease,Hell, like their nation, feeds on barnacles.A Scot, when from the gallow-tree got loose,Drops into Styx and turns a Solan goose.

How, Providence? and yet a Scottish crew?Then Madam Nature wears black patches too!What? shall our nation be in bondage thusUnto a land that truckles under us?Ring the bells backward! I am all on fire.Not all the buckets in a country quireShall quench my rage. A poet should be feared,When angry, like a comet's flaming beard.And where 's the stoic can his wrath appease,10To see his country sick of Pym's disease?By Scotch invasion to be made a preyTo such pigwiggin myrmidons as they?But that there 's charm in verse, I would not quoteThe name of Scot without an antidote;Unless my head were red, that I might brewInvention there that might be poison too.Were I a drowsy judge whose dismal noteDisgorgeth halters as a juggler's throatDoth ribbons; could I in Sir Emp'ric's tone20Speak pills in phrase and quack destruction;Or roar like Marshall, that Geneva bull,Hell and damnation a pulpit full;Yet to express a Scot, to play that prize,Not all those mouth-grenadoes can suffice.Before a Scot can properly be curst,I must like Hocus swallow daggers first.Come, keen iambics, with your badger's feetAnd badger-like bite till your teeth do meet.Help, ye tart satirists, to imp my rage30With all the scorpions that should whip this age.Scots are like witches; do but whet your pen,Scratch till the blood come, they'll not hurt you then.Now, as the martyrs were enforced to takeThe shapes of beasts, like hypocrites, at stake,I'll bait my Scot so, yet not cheat your eyes;A Scot within a beast is no disguise.No more let Ireland brag her harmless nationFosters no venom since the Scot's plantation:Nor can ours feigned antiquity maintain;40Since they came in, England hath wolves again.The Scot that kept the Tower might have shown,Within the grate of his own breast alone,The leopard and the panther, and engrossedWhat all those wild collegiates had costThe honest high-shoes in their termly fees;First to the salvage lawyer, next to these.Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess,Making their country such a wilderness:A land that brings in question and suspense50God's omnipresence, but that Charles came thence,But that Montrose and Crawford's loyal bandAtoned their sins and christ'ned half the land.Nor is it all the nation hath these spots;There is a Church as well as Kirk of Scots.As in a picture where the squinting paintShows fiend on this side, and on that side saint.He, that saw Hell in 's melancholy dreamAnd in the twilight of his fancy's theme,Scared from his sins, repented in a fright,60Had he viewed Scotland, had turned proselyte.A land where one may pray with cursed intent,'Oh may they never suffer banishment!'Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom;Not forced him wander but confined him home!Like Jews they spread and as infection fly,As if the Devil had ubiquity.Hence 'tis they live at rovers and defyThis or that place, rags of geography.They're citizens o' th' world; they're all in all;70Scotland's a nation epidemical.And yet they ramble not to learn the mode,How to be dressed, or how to lisp abroad;To return knowing in the Spanish shrug,Or which of the Dutch States a double jugResembles most in belly or in beard,(The card by which the mariners are steered).No, the Scots-errant fight and fight to eat,Their Ostrich stomachs make their swords their meat.Nature with Scots as tooth-drawers hath dealt80Who use to hang their teeth upon their belt.Yet wonder not at this their happy choice,The serpent 's fatal still to Paradise.Sure, England hath the hemorrhoids, and theseOn the north postern of the patient seizeLike leeches; thus they physically thirstAfter our blood, but in the cure shall burst!Let them not think to make us run o' th' scoreTo purchase villenage, as once beforeWhen an act passed to stroke them on the head,90Call them good subjects, buy them gingerbread.Not gold, nor acts of grace, 'tis steel must tameThe stubborn Scot; a Prince that would reclaimRebels by yielding, doth like him, or worse,Who saddled his own back to shame his horse.Was it for this you left your leaner soil,Thus to lard Israel with Egypt's spoil?They are the Gospel's life-guard; but for them,The garrison of New Jerusalem,What would the brethren do? The Cause! The Cause!100Sack-possets and the fundamental laws!Lord! what a godly thing is want of shirts!How a Scotch stomach and no meat converts!They wanted food and raiment, so they tookReligion for their seamstress and their cook.Unmask them well; their honours and estate,As well as conscience, are sophisticate.Shrive but their titles and their money poise,A laird and twenty pence pronounced with noise,When construed, but for a plain yeoman go,110And a good sober two-pence; and well so.Hence then, you proud impostors; get you gone,You Picts in gentry and devotion;You scandal to the stock of verse, a raceAble to bring the gibbet in disgrace.Hyperbolus by suffering did traduceThe ostracism and shamed it out of use.The Indian, that Heaven did forswearBecause he heard some Spaniards were there,Had he but known what Scots in Hell had been,120He would Erasmus-like have hung between.My Muse hath done. A voider for the nonce!I wrong the Devil should I pick their bones;That dish is his; for, when the Scots decease,Hell, like their nation, feeds on barnacles.A Scot, when from the gallow-tree got loose,Drops into Styx and turns a Solan goose.

How, Providence? and yet a Scottish crew?

Then Madam Nature wears black patches too!

What? shall our nation be in bondage thus

Unto a land that truckles under us?

Ring the bells backward! I am all on fire.

Not all the buckets in a country quire

Shall quench my rage. A poet should be feared,

When angry, like a comet's flaming beard.

And where 's the stoic can his wrath appease,

10To see his country sick of Pym's disease?

By Scotch invasion to be made a prey

To such pigwiggin myrmidons as they?

But that there 's charm in verse, I would not quote

The name of Scot without an antidote;

Unless my head were red, that I might brew

Invention there that might be poison too.

Were I a drowsy judge whose dismal note

Disgorgeth halters as a juggler's throat

Doth ribbons; could I in Sir Emp'ric's tone

20Speak pills in phrase and quack destruction;

Or roar like Marshall, that Geneva bull,

Hell and damnation a pulpit full;

Yet to express a Scot, to play that prize,

Not all those mouth-grenadoes can suffice.

Before a Scot can properly be curst,

I must like Hocus swallow daggers first.

Come, keen iambics, with your badger's feet

And badger-like bite till your teeth do meet.

Help, ye tart satirists, to imp my rage

30With all the scorpions that should whip this age.

Scots are like witches; do but whet your pen,

Scratch till the blood come, they'll not hurt you then.

Now, as the martyrs were enforced to take

The shapes of beasts, like hypocrites, at stake,

I'll bait my Scot so, yet not cheat your eyes;

A Scot within a beast is no disguise.

No more let Ireland brag her harmless nation

Fosters no venom since the Scot's plantation:

Nor can ours feigned antiquity maintain;

40Since they came in, England hath wolves again.

The Scot that kept the Tower might have shown,

Within the grate of his own breast alone,

The leopard and the panther, and engrossed

What all those wild collegiates had cost

The honest high-shoes in their termly fees;

First to the salvage lawyer, next to these.

Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess,

Making their country such a wilderness:

A land that brings in question and suspense

50God's omnipresence, but that Charles came thence,

But that Montrose and Crawford's loyal band

Atoned their sins and christ'ned half the land.

Nor is it all the nation hath these spots;

There is a Church as well as Kirk of Scots.

As in a picture where the squinting paint

Shows fiend on this side, and on that side saint.

He, that saw Hell in 's melancholy dream

And in the twilight of his fancy's theme,

Scared from his sins, repented in a fright,

60Had he viewed Scotland, had turned proselyte.

A land where one may pray with cursed intent,

'Oh may they never suffer banishment!'

Had Cain been Scot, God would have changed his doom;

Not forced him wander but confined him home!

Like Jews they spread and as infection fly,

As if the Devil had ubiquity.

Hence 'tis they live at rovers and defy

This or that place, rags of geography.

They're citizens o' th' world; they're all in all;

70Scotland's a nation epidemical.

And yet they ramble not to learn the mode,

How to be dressed, or how to lisp abroad;

To return knowing in the Spanish shrug,

Or which of the Dutch States a double jug

Resembles most in belly or in beard,

(The card by which the mariners are steered).

No, the Scots-errant fight and fight to eat,

Their Ostrich stomachs make their swords their meat.

Nature with Scots as tooth-drawers hath dealt

80Who use to hang their teeth upon their belt.

Yet wonder not at this their happy choice,

The serpent 's fatal still to Paradise.

Sure, England hath the hemorrhoids, and these

On the north postern of the patient seize

Like leeches; thus they physically thirst

After our blood, but in the cure shall burst!

Let them not think to make us run o' th' score

To purchase villenage, as once before

When an act passed to stroke them on the head,

90Call them good subjects, buy them gingerbread.

Not gold, nor acts of grace, 'tis steel must tame

The stubborn Scot; a Prince that would reclaim

Rebels by yielding, doth like him, or worse,

Who saddled his own back to shame his horse.

Was it for this you left your leaner soil,

Thus to lard Israel with Egypt's spoil?

They are the Gospel's life-guard; but for them,

The garrison of New Jerusalem,

What would the brethren do? The Cause! The Cause!

100Sack-possets and the fundamental laws!

Lord! what a godly thing is want of shirts!

How a Scotch stomach and no meat converts!

They wanted food and raiment, so they took

Religion for their seamstress and their cook.

Unmask them well; their honours and estate,

As well as conscience, are sophisticate.

Shrive but their titles and their money poise,

A laird and twenty pence pronounced with noise,

When construed, but for a plain yeoman go,

110And a good sober two-pence; and well so.

Hence then, you proud impostors; get you gone,

You Picts in gentry and devotion;

You scandal to the stock of verse, a race

Able to bring the gibbet in disgrace.

Hyperbolus by suffering did traduce

The ostracism and shamed it out of use.

The Indian, that Heaven did forswear

Because he heard some Spaniards were there,

Had he but known what Scots in Hell had been,

120He would Erasmus-like have hung between.

My Muse hath done. A voider for the nonce!

I wrong the Devil should I pick their bones;

That dish is his; for, when the Scots decease,

Hell, like their nation, feeds on barnacles.

A Scot, when from the gallow-tree got loose,

Drops into Styx and turns a Solan goose.

The Rebel Scot.] This famous piece is said to be the only one of Cleveland's poems which is in every edition. In1677it is accompanied by a Latin version (of very little merit, and probably if not certainly by 'another hand') which I do not give. A poor copy is in Tanner MS. 465 of the Bodleian, at fol. 92, with the title 'A curse on the Scots'. The piece is hot enough, and no wonder; but it would no doubt have been hotter if it had been written later, when Cleveland was actually gagged by Leven's dismissal of him. It is not unnoteworthy that the library of the University of Edinburgh contains not a single one of the numerous seventeenth-century editions of Cleveland. Years afterwards, when a Douglas had chequered the disgrace of 'the Dutch in the Medway' by a brave death, Marvell, who probably knew our poet, composed for 'Cleveland's Ghost' a half palinode, half continuation, entitled 'TheLoyalScot'.10 It would seem that Pym had not yet gone to his account, as he died on December 6, 1643, after getting Parliament to accept the Covenant and the Scots to invade England.12 The early texts have Drayton's name correctly:1677makes it 'Pigwidgin'.15 It seems hardly necessary to remind the reader of the well-known habit of painting Judas's hair red.19 could ... tone] or in the Empiric's misty toneMS.21 Stephen Marshall, the 'Smec.' man and a mighty cushion-thumper (who denounced the 'Curse of Meroz' on all who came not to destroy those in any degree opposed to the Parliament), actually preached Pym's funeral sermon.22 'Damnati-on'. ButMS.reads 'a whole pulpit full'.281653has the obvious blunder of 'feet' repeated for 'teeth'. The first 'feet' is itself less obvious, but I suppose the strong claw and grip of the badger's are meant. Some, however, refer it to the supposed lop-sidedness or inequality of badgers' feet, answering to the ⏑— of the iamb. I never knew but one badger, who lived in St. Clement's, Oxford, and belonged (surreptitiously) to Merton College. I did not notice his feet.32 The more usual reproach was the other way—that 'the Scot would not fighttillhe saw his own blood'.381677, less well, 'thatScot'.39 'ours ... maintain'1647,1651,1653: 'our ... obtain'1677.41 The Scot] Sir William Balfour, a favoured servant of the King, who deserted to the other side.44 A difficulty has been made about 'collegiate', but there is surely none. The word (or 'collegian') is old slang, and hardly slang for 'jail-bird'. The double use of the Tower as a prison and a menagerie should of course be remembered.45 high-shoes] Country folk in boots.termly] = 'when they came up to business'.51 Crawford] Ludovic, sixteenth Earl, who fought bravely all through the Rebellion, served after the downfall in France and Spain, and died, it is not accurately known when or where, but about 1652.52 A fine line.1677does not improve it by reading 'theirland'.63-4 The central and most often quoted couplet.65-6 follow 70 in theMS.67 at rovers] Common for shooting not at a definite mark, but at large.70 epidemical] In the proper sense of 'travelling from country to country', not doubtless without the transferred one of a 'travellingplague'.74 States] not the Provinces; but the representative Hogan Mogans themselves.78 'Ostrich' in1677:1647,1651,and1653the older 'estrich'.80 hang] string1677.81 'But why should we be made your frantic choice?'MS.82 'England too hath emerods'MS.831651,1653have a middle form between 'emerod' and 'hemorrhoid'—'Hemeroids'.1647'Hemerods'.841647,1651,1653and its group, oddly, 'posture'.89 The Parliamentary bribe or Danegelt of 1641.95 'left'1653, &c.,1677: 'gave'1647,1651. TheMS.reads 'But they may justly quit their leaner soil. 'Tis to lard ...'1011651,1653'goodly', but here, I think, the old is not the better.107 'money'1647,1651,1653: 'moneys'1677.1081647,1653, &c. 'pound', wrongly. Twenty Scots pence = not quite two-pence English. Therefore 'well so'.1181641,1651, and1653'the Spaniards', but 'some' (1677) is more pointed.120 Erasmus] Regarded as neither Papist nor Protestant?Cleveland never wrote anything else of this force and fire: and it, or parts of it, were constantly revived when the occasion presented itself.

The Rebel Scot.] This famous piece is said to be the only one of Cleveland's poems which is in every edition. In1677it is accompanied by a Latin version (of very little merit, and probably if not certainly by 'another hand') which I do not give. A poor copy is in Tanner MS. 465 of the Bodleian, at fol. 92, with the title 'A curse on the Scots'. The piece is hot enough, and no wonder; but it would no doubt have been hotter if it had been written later, when Cleveland was actually gagged by Leven's dismissal of him. It is not unnoteworthy that the library of the University of Edinburgh contains not a single one of the numerous seventeenth-century editions of Cleveland. Years afterwards, when a Douglas had chequered the disgrace of 'the Dutch in the Medway' by a brave death, Marvell, who probably knew our poet, composed for 'Cleveland's Ghost' a half palinode, half continuation, entitled 'TheLoyalScot'.

10 It would seem that Pym had not yet gone to his account, as he died on December 6, 1643, after getting Parliament to accept the Covenant and the Scots to invade England.

12 The early texts have Drayton's name correctly:1677makes it 'Pigwidgin'.

15 It seems hardly necessary to remind the reader of the well-known habit of painting Judas's hair red.

19 could ... tone] or in the Empiric's misty toneMS.

21 Stephen Marshall, the 'Smec.' man and a mighty cushion-thumper (who denounced the 'Curse of Meroz' on all who came not to destroy those in any degree opposed to the Parliament), actually preached Pym's funeral sermon.

22 'Damnati-on'. ButMS.reads 'a whole pulpit full'.

281653has the obvious blunder of 'feet' repeated for 'teeth'. The first 'feet' is itself less obvious, but I suppose the strong claw and grip of the badger's are meant. Some, however, refer it to the supposed lop-sidedness or inequality of badgers' feet, answering to the ⏑— of the iamb. I never knew but one badger, who lived in St. Clement's, Oxford, and belonged (surreptitiously) to Merton College. I did not notice his feet.

32 The more usual reproach was the other way—that 'the Scot would not fighttillhe saw his own blood'.

381677, less well, 'thatScot'.

39 'ours ... maintain'1647,1651,1653: 'our ... obtain'1677.

41 The Scot] Sir William Balfour, a favoured servant of the King, who deserted to the other side.

44 A difficulty has been made about 'collegiate', but there is surely none. The word (or 'collegian') is old slang, and hardly slang for 'jail-bird'. The double use of the Tower as a prison and a menagerie should of course be remembered.

45 high-shoes] Country folk in boots.

termly] = 'when they came up to business'.

51 Crawford] Ludovic, sixteenth Earl, who fought bravely all through the Rebellion, served after the downfall in France and Spain, and died, it is not accurately known when or where, but about 1652.

52 A fine line.1677does not improve it by reading 'theirland'.

63-4 The central and most often quoted couplet.

65-6 follow 70 in theMS.

67 at rovers] Common for shooting not at a definite mark, but at large.

70 epidemical] In the proper sense of 'travelling from country to country', not doubtless without the transferred one of a 'travellingplague'.

74 States] not the Provinces; but the representative Hogan Mogans themselves.

78 'Ostrich' in1677:1647,1651,and1653the older 'estrich'.

80 hang] string1677.

81 'But why should we be made your frantic choice?'MS.

82 'England too hath emerods'MS.

831651,1653have a middle form between 'emerod' and 'hemorrhoid'—'Hemeroids'.1647'Hemerods'.

841647,1651,1653and its group, oddly, 'posture'.

89 The Parliamentary bribe or Danegelt of 1641.

95 'left'1653, &c.,1677: 'gave'1647,1651. TheMS.reads 'But they may justly quit their leaner soil. 'Tis to lard ...'

1011651,1653'goodly', but here, I think, the old is not the better.

107 'money'1647,1651,1653: 'moneys'1677.

1081647,1653, &c. 'pound', wrongly. Twenty Scots pence = not quite two-pence English. Therefore 'well so'.

1181641,1651, and1653'the Spaniards', but 'some' (1677) is more pointed.

120 Erasmus] Regarded as neither Papist nor Protestant?

Cleveland never wrote anything else of this force and fire: and it, or parts of it, were constantly revived when the occasion presented itself.

Is 't come to this? What? shall the cheeks of Fame,Stretched with the breath of learned Loudoun's name,Be flagged again? And that great piece of sense,As rich in loyalty as eloquence,Brought to the test, be found a trick of state?Like chemists' tinctures, proved adulterate?The Devil sure such language did achieveTo cheat our unforewarned Grandam Eve,As this impostor found out to besot10Th' experienced English to believe a Scot!Who reconciled the Covenant's doubtful sense,The Commons' argument, or the City's pence?Or did you doubt persistence in one goodWould spoil the fabric of your brotherhood,Projected first in such a forge of sin,Was fit for the grand Devil's hammering?Or was 't ambition that this damned factShould tell the world you know the sins you act?The infamy this super-treason brings20Blasts more than murders of your sixty kings;A crime so black, as being advis'dly done,Those hold with this no competition.Kings only suffered then; in this doth lieTh' assassination of Monarchy.Beyond this sin no one step can be trod,If not t' attempt deposing of your God.Oh, were you so engaged that we might seeHeaven's angry lightning 'bout your ears to fleeTill you were shrivelled to dust, and your cold Land30Parched to a drought beyond the Lybian sand!But 'tis reserved! Till Heaven plague you worse,Be objects of an epidemic curse.First, may your brethren, to whose viler endsYour power hath bawded, cease to count you friends,And, prompted by the dictate of their reason,Reproach the traitors though they hug the treason:And may their jealousies increase and breedTill they confine your steps beyond the Tweed:In foreign nations may your loath'd name be40A stigmatizing brand of infamy,Till forced by general hate you cease to roamThe world, and for a plague go live at home;Till you resume your poverty and beReduced to beg where none can be so freeTo grant: and may your scabby Land be allTranslated to a general hospital:Let not the sun afford one gentle rayTo give you comfort of a summer's day;But, as a guerdon for your traitorous war,50Live cherished only by the Northern Star:No stranger deign to visit your rude coast,And be to all but banished men as lost:And such, in heightening of the infliction due,Let provoked princes send them all to you:Your State a chaos be where not the Law,But power, your lives and liberties may awe:No subject 'mongst you keep a quiet breast,But each man strive through blood to be the best;Till, for those miseries on us you've brought,60By your own sword our just revenge be wrought.To sum up all—let your religion be,As your allegiance, masked hypocrisy,Until, when Charles shall be composed in dust,Perfumed with epithets of good and just,HE saved, incenséd Heaven may have forgotT' afford one act of mercy to a Scot,Unless that Scot deny himself and do(What's easier far) renounce his Nation too.

Is 't come to this? What? shall the cheeks of Fame,Stretched with the breath of learned Loudoun's name,Be flagged again? And that great piece of sense,As rich in loyalty as eloquence,Brought to the test, be found a trick of state?Like chemists' tinctures, proved adulterate?The Devil sure such language did achieveTo cheat our unforewarned Grandam Eve,As this impostor found out to besot10Th' experienced English to believe a Scot!Who reconciled the Covenant's doubtful sense,The Commons' argument, or the City's pence?Or did you doubt persistence in one goodWould spoil the fabric of your brotherhood,Projected first in such a forge of sin,Was fit for the grand Devil's hammering?Or was 't ambition that this damned factShould tell the world you know the sins you act?The infamy this super-treason brings20Blasts more than murders of your sixty kings;A crime so black, as being advis'dly done,Those hold with this no competition.Kings only suffered then; in this doth lieTh' assassination of Monarchy.Beyond this sin no one step can be trod,If not t' attempt deposing of your God.Oh, were you so engaged that we might seeHeaven's angry lightning 'bout your ears to fleeTill you were shrivelled to dust, and your cold Land30Parched to a drought beyond the Lybian sand!But 'tis reserved! Till Heaven plague you worse,Be objects of an epidemic curse.First, may your brethren, to whose viler endsYour power hath bawded, cease to count you friends,And, prompted by the dictate of their reason,Reproach the traitors though they hug the treason:And may their jealousies increase and breedTill they confine your steps beyond the Tweed:In foreign nations may your loath'd name be40A stigmatizing brand of infamy,Till forced by general hate you cease to roamThe world, and for a plague go live at home;Till you resume your poverty and beReduced to beg where none can be so freeTo grant: and may your scabby Land be allTranslated to a general hospital:Let not the sun afford one gentle rayTo give you comfort of a summer's day;But, as a guerdon for your traitorous war,50Live cherished only by the Northern Star:No stranger deign to visit your rude coast,And be to all but banished men as lost:And such, in heightening of the infliction due,Let provoked princes send them all to you:Your State a chaos be where not the Law,But power, your lives and liberties may awe:No subject 'mongst you keep a quiet breast,But each man strive through blood to be the best;Till, for those miseries on us you've brought,60By your own sword our just revenge be wrought.To sum up all—let your religion be,As your allegiance, masked hypocrisy,Until, when Charles shall be composed in dust,Perfumed with epithets of good and just,HE saved, incenséd Heaven may have forgotT' afford one act of mercy to a Scot,Unless that Scot deny himself and do(What's easier far) renounce his Nation too.

Is 't come to this? What? shall the cheeks of Fame,

Stretched with the breath of learned Loudoun's name,

Be flagged again? And that great piece of sense,

As rich in loyalty as eloquence,

Brought to the test, be found a trick of state?

Like chemists' tinctures, proved adulterate?

The Devil sure such language did achieve

To cheat our unforewarned Grandam Eve,

As this impostor found out to besot

10Th' experienced English to believe a Scot!

Who reconciled the Covenant's doubtful sense,

The Commons' argument, or the City's pence?

Or did you doubt persistence in one good

Would spoil the fabric of your brotherhood,

Projected first in such a forge of sin,

Was fit for the grand Devil's hammering?

Or was 't ambition that this damned fact

Should tell the world you know the sins you act?

The infamy this super-treason brings

20Blasts more than murders of your sixty kings;

A crime so black, as being advis'dly done,

Those hold with this no competition.

Kings only suffered then; in this doth lie

Th' assassination of Monarchy.

Beyond this sin no one step can be trod,

If not t' attempt deposing of your God.

Oh, were you so engaged that we might see

Heaven's angry lightning 'bout your ears to flee

Till you were shrivelled to dust, and your cold Land

30Parched to a drought beyond the Lybian sand!

But 'tis reserved! Till Heaven plague you worse,

Be objects of an epidemic curse.

First, may your brethren, to whose viler ends

Your power hath bawded, cease to count you friends,

And, prompted by the dictate of their reason,

Reproach the traitors though they hug the treason:

And may their jealousies increase and breed

Till they confine your steps beyond the Tweed:

In foreign nations may your loath'd name be

40A stigmatizing brand of infamy,

Till forced by general hate you cease to roam

The world, and for a plague go live at home;

Till you resume your poverty and be

Reduced to beg where none can be so free

To grant: and may your scabby Land be all

Translated to a general hospital:

Let not the sun afford one gentle ray

To give you comfort of a summer's day;

But, as a guerdon for your traitorous war,

50Live cherished only by the Northern Star:

No stranger deign to visit your rude coast,

And be to all but banished men as lost:

And such, in heightening of the infliction due,

Let provoked princes send them all to you:

Your State a chaos be where not the Law,

But power, your lives and liberties may awe:

No subject 'mongst you keep a quiet breast,

But each man strive through blood to be the best;

Till, for those miseries on us you've brought,

60By your own sword our just revenge be wrought.

To sum up all—let your religion be,

As your allegiance, masked hypocrisy,

Until, when Charles shall be composed in dust,

Perfumed with epithets of good and just,

HE saved, incenséd Heaven may have forgot

T' afford one act of mercy to a Scot,

Unless that Scot deny himself and do

(What's easier far) renounce his Nation too.

The Scots' Apostasywas first printed as a broadside in1646, and assigned at the time to Cleveland by Thomas Old. It was included in1651, but not admitted by the 'Vindicators' in1677. But it is in all the central group of editions exceptCleaveland Revived, where absence is usually a strong proof of genuineness; and it is extremely like him. Mr. Berdan has admitted it, and so do I. Professor Case has noted a catalogue entry ofThe Scot's Constancy, an answer to J. C's.[al.Or an Answer to Cleveland's]Scots' Apostasy(G. R. Bastick) [al.Robin Bostock], London April 1647. The 'J. C's' is of course pertinent.2 John Campbell (1598-1633), from 1620 Baron Loudoun in his wife's right, was, after taking a violent part on the Covenant side in the earlier Scotch-English war, instrumental in concluding peace; and was made in 1641 Chancellor of Scotland and Earl of Loudoun.4 as] 'and'1653.9 'imposture'1651,1653.20 The celebrated and grisly collection of Scottish monarchs in Holyrood was not yet in existence; for its imaginative creator only painted it in 1684, and there are 106, not sixty. But the remoteness of Scottish pedigrees was popularly known: and if it be not true that all Scottish kings were murdered, not a few had been.24 'Assassination' is valued at six syllables.28 'to'1651, &c.: 'into'1646.31 Till] and tell1646,1651.34 'count you'1646,1651,1653, &c.: 'be your'1687. This prayer, at any rate, was heard pretty soon.38 'steps'1651, &c.: 'ships'1646.42 'go', misprinted 'to' in1653, &c.67-8 Not in1646.

The Scots' Apostasywas first printed as a broadside in1646, and assigned at the time to Cleveland by Thomas Old. It was included in1651, but not admitted by the 'Vindicators' in1677. But it is in all the central group of editions exceptCleaveland Revived, where absence is usually a strong proof of genuineness; and it is extremely like him. Mr. Berdan has admitted it, and so do I. Professor Case has noted a catalogue entry ofThe Scot's Constancy, an answer to J. C's.[al.Or an Answer to Cleveland's]Scots' Apostasy(G. R. Bastick) [al.Robin Bostock], London April 1647. The 'J. C's' is of course pertinent.

2 John Campbell (1598-1633), from 1620 Baron Loudoun in his wife's right, was, after taking a violent part on the Covenant side in the earlier Scotch-English war, instrumental in concluding peace; and was made in 1641 Chancellor of Scotland and Earl of Loudoun.

4 as] 'and'1653.

9 'imposture'1651,1653.

20 The celebrated and grisly collection of Scottish monarchs in Holyrood was not yet in existence; for its imaginative creator only painted it in 1684, and there are 106, not sixty. But the remoteness of Scottish pedigrees was popularly known: and if it be not true that all Scottish kings were murdered, not a few had been.

24 'Assassination' is valued at six syllables.

28 'to'1651, &c.: 'into'1646.

31 Till] and tell1646,1651.

34 'count you'1646,1651,1653, &c.: 'be your'1687. This prayer, at any rate, was heard pretty soon.

38 'steps'1651, &c.: 'ships'1646.

42 'go', misprinted 'to' in1653, &c.

67-8 Not in1646.

O that I could but vote myself a poet,Or had the legislative knack to do it!Or, like the doctors militant, could getDubbed at adventure Verser Banneret!Or had I Cacus' trick to make my rhymesTheir own antipodes, and track the times!'Faces about,' says the remonstrant spirit,'Allegiance is malignant, treason merit.'Huntingdon colt, that posed the sage recorder,10Might be a sturgeon now and pass by order.Had I but Elsing's gift (that splay-mouthed brotherThat declares one way and yet means another),Could I thus write asquint, then, Sir, long sinceYou had been sung a great and glorious Prince!I had observed the language of these days,Blasphemed you, and then periwigged the phraseWith humble service and such other fustian,Bells which ring backward in this great combustion.I had reviled you, and without offence;20The literal and equitable senseWould make it good. When all fails, that will do 't;Sure that distinction cleft the Devil's foot!This were my dialect, would your Highness pleaseTo read me but with Hebrew spectacles;Interpret counter what is cross rehearsed;Libels are commendations when reversed.Just as an optic glass contracts the sightAt one end, but when turned doth multiply 't.But you're enchanted, Sir, you're doubly free30From the great guns and squibbing poetry,Whom neither bilbo nor invention pierces,Proof even 'gainst th' artillery of verses.Strange that the Muses cannot wound your mail!If not their art, yet let their sex prevail.At that known leaguer, where the bonny BessesSupplied the bow-strings with their twisted tresses,Your spells could ne'er have fenced you, every arrowHad lanced your noble breast and drunk the marrow.For beauty, like white powder, makes no noise40And yet the silent hypocrite destroys.Then use the Nuns of Helicon with pityLest Wharton tell his gossips of the CityThat you kill women too, nay maids, and suchTheir general wants militia to touch.Impotent Essex! Is it not a shameOur Commonwealth, like to a Turkish dame,Should have an eunuch guardian? May she beRavished by Charles, rather than saved by thee!But why, my Muse, like a green-sickness girl,50Feed'st thou on coals and dirt? A gelding earlGives no more relish to thy female palateThan to that ass did once the thistle sallet.Then quit the barren theme and all at once,Thou and thy sisters like bright Amazons,Give Rupert an alarum. Rupert! oneWhose name is wit's superfetation,Makes fancy, like eternity's round womb,Unite all valour, present, past, to come!He who the old philosophy controls60That voted down plurality of souls!He breathes a Grand Committee; all that wereThe wonders of their age constellate here.And as the elder sisters, Growth and Sense,Souls paramount themselves, in man commenceBut faculties of reasons queen; no moreAre they to him (who was complete before),Ingredients of his virtue. Thread the beadsOf Caesar's acts, great Pompey's and the Swede's,And 'tis a bracelet fit for Rupert's hand,70By which that vast triumvirate is spanned.Here, here is palmistry; here you may readHow long the world shall live and when 't shall bleed.What every man winds up, that Rupert hath,For Nature raised him of the Public Faith;Pandora's brother, to make up whose storeThe gods were fain to run upon the score.Such was the painter's brief for Venus' face;Item, an eye from Jane; a lip from Grace.Let Isaac and his cits flay off the plate80That tips their antlers, for the calf of state;Let the zeal-twanging nose, that wants a ridge,Snuffling devoutly, drop his silver bridge;Yes, and the gossip spoon augment the sumAlthough poor Caleb lose his christendom;Rupert outweighs that in his sterling selfWhich their self-want pays in commuting pelf.Pardon, great Sir, for that ignoble crewGains when made bankrupt in the scales with you.As he, who in his character of Light90Styled it God's shadow, made it far more brightBy an eclipse so glorious (light is dimAnd a black nothing when compared to Him),So 'tis illustrious to be Rupert's foilAnd a just trophy to be made his spoil.I'll pin my faith on the Diurnal's sleeveHereafter, and the Guildhall creed believe;The conquests which the Common Council hearsWith their wide listening mouth from the great PeersThat ran away in triumph. Such a foe100Can make them victors in their overthrow;Where providence and valour meet in one,Courage so poised with circumspectionThat he revives the quarrel once againOf the soul's throne; whether in heart, or brain,And leaves it a drawn match; whose fervour canHatch him whom Nature poached but half a man;His trumpet, like the angel's at the last,Makes the soul rise by a miraculous blast.Was the Mount Athos carved in shape of man110As 'twas designed by th' Macedonian(Whose right hand should a populous land contain,The left should be a channel to the main),His spirit would inform th' amphibious figureAnd, strait-laced, sweat for a dominion bigger.The terror of whose name can out of seven,Like Falstaff's buckram men, make fly eleven.Thus some grow rich by breaking. Vipers thus,By being slain, are made more numerous.No wonder they'll confess no loss of men,120For Rupert knocks 'em till they gig again.They fear the giblets of his train, they fearEven his dog, that four-legged cavalier;He that devours the scraps that Lunsford makes;Whose picture feeds upon a child in steaks;Who, name but Charles, he comes aloft for him,But holds up his malignant leg at Pym.'Gainst whom they have these articles in souse:First, that he barks against the sense o' th' House;Resolved delinquent, to the Tower straight,130Either to th' Lions' or the Bishop's Grate:Next, for his ceremonious wag o' th' tail.(But there the sisterhood will be his bail,At least the Countess will, Lust's Amsterdam,That lets in all religions of the game.)Thirdly, he smells intelligence; that 's betterAnd cheaper too than Pym's from his own letter,Who 's doubly paid (Fortune or we the blinder!)For making plots and then for fox the finder:Lastly, he is a devil without doubt,140For, when he would lie down, he wheels about,Makes circles, and is couchant in a ring;And therefore score up one for conjuring.'What canst thou say, thou wretch!' 'O quarter, quarter!I'm but an instrument, a mere Sir Arthur.If I must hang, O let not our fates vary,Whose office 'tis alike to fetch and carry!'No hopes of a reprieve; the mutinous stirThat strung the Jesuit will dispatch a cur.'Were I a devil as the rabble fears,150I see the House would try me by my peers!'There, Jowler, there! Ah, Jowler! 'st, 'tis nought!Whate'er the accusers cry, they're at a fault:And Glyn and Maynard have no more to sayThan when the glorious Strafford stood at bay.Thus libels but annexed to him, we see,Enjoy a copyhold of victory.Saint Peter's shadow healed; Rupert's is such'Twould find Saint Peter's work and wound as much.He gags their guns, defeats their dire intent;160The cannons do but lisp and compliment.Sure, Jove descended in a leaden showerTo get this Perseus; hence the fatal powerOf shot is strangled. Bullets thus alliedFear to commit an act of parricide.Go on, brave Prince, and make the world confessThou art the greater world and that the less.Scatter th' accumulative king; untrussThat five-fold fiend, the State's Smectymnuus,Who place religion in their vellum ears170As in their phylacters the Jews did theirs.England's a paradise (and a modest word)Since guarded by a cherub's flaming sword.Your name can scare an atheist to his prayers,And cure the chincough better than the bears.Old Sibyl charms the toothache with you; NurseMakes you still children; and the ponderous curseThe clowns salute with is derived from you,'Now, Rupert take thee, rogue, how dost thou do?'In fine the name of Rupert thunders so,180Kimbolton's but a rumbling wheelbarrow.

O that I could but vote myself a poet,Or had the legislative knack to do it!Or, like the doctors militant, could getDubbed at adventure Verser Banneret!Or had I Cacus' trick to make my rhymesTheir own antipodes, and track the times!'Faces about,' says the remonstrant spirit,'Allegiance is malignant, treason merit.'Huntingdon colt, that posed the sage recorder,10Might be a sturgeon now and pass by order.Had I but Elsing's gift (that splay-mouthed brotherThat declares one way and yet means another),Could I thus write asquint, then, Sir, long sinceYou had been sung a great and glorious Prince!I had observed the language of these days,Blasphemed you, and then periwigged the phraseWith humble service and such other fustian,Bells which ring backward in this great combustion.I had reviled you, and without offence;20The literal and equitable senseWould make it good. When all fails, that will do 't;Sure that distinction cleft the Devil's foot!This were my dialect, would your Highness pleaseTo read me but with Hebrew spectacles;Interpret counter what is cross rehearsed;Libels are commendations when reversed.Just as an optic glass contracts the sightAt one end, but when turned doth multiply 't.But you're enchanted, Sir, you're doubly free30From the great guns and squibbing poetry,Whom neither bilbo nor invention pierces,Proof even 'gainst th' artillery of verses.Strange that the Muses cannot wound your mail!If not their art, yet let their sex prevail.At that known leaguer, where the bonny BessesSupplied the bow-strings with their twisted tresses,Your spells could ne'er have fenced you, every arrowHad lanced your noble breast and drunk the marrow.For beauty, like white powder, makes no noise40And yet the silent hypocrite destroys.Then use the Nuns of Helicon with pityLest Wharton tell his gossips of the CityThat you kill women too, nay maids, and suchTheir general wants militia to touch.Impotent Essex! Is it not a shameOur Commonwealth, like to a Turkish dame,Should have an eunuch guardian? May she beRavished by Charles, rather than saved by thee!But why, my Muse, like a green-sickness girl,50Feed'st thou on coals and dirt? A gelding earlGives no more relish to thy female palateThan to that ass did once the thistle sallet.Then quit the barren theme and all at once,Thou and thy sisters like bright Amazons,Give Rupert an alarum. Rupert! oneWhose name is wit's superfetation,Makes fancy, like eternity's round womb,Unite all valour, present, past, to come!He who the old philosophy controls60That voted down plurality of souls!He breathes a Grand Committee; all that wereThe wonders of their age constellate here.And as the elder sisters, Growth and Sense,Souls paramount themselves, in man commenceBut faculties of reasons queen; no moreAre they to him (who was complete before),Ingredients of his virtue. Thread the beadsOf Caesar's acts, great Pompey's and the Swede's,And 'tis a bracelet fit for Rupert's hand,70By which that vast triumvirate is spanned.Here, here is palmistry; here you may readHow long the world shall live and when 't shall bleed.What every man winds up, that Rupert hath,For Nature raised him of the Public Faith;Pandora's brother, to make up whose storeThe gods were fain to run upon the score.Such was the painter's brief for Venus' face;Item, an eye from Jane; a lip from Grace.Let Isaac and his cits flay off the plate80That tips their antlers, for the calf of state;Let the zeal-twanging nose, that wants a ridge,Snuffling devoutly, drop his silver bridge;Yes, and the gossip spoon augment the sumAlthough poor Caleb lose his christendom;Rupert outweighs that in his sterling selfWhich their self-want pays in commuting pelf.Pardon, great Sir, for that ignoble crewGains when made bankrupt in the scales with you.As he, who in his character of Light90Styled it God's shadow, made it far more brightBy an eclipse so glorious (light is dimAnd a black nothing when compared to Him),So 'tis illustrious to be Rupert's foilAnd a just trophy to be made his spoil.I'll pin my faith on the Diurnal's sleeveHereafter, and the Guildhall creed believe;The conquests which the Common Council hearsWith their wide listening mouth from the great PeersThat ran away in triumph. Such a foe100Can make them victors in their overthrow;Where providence and valour meet in one,Courage so poised with circumspectionThat he revives the quarrel once againOf the soul's throne; whether in heart, or brain,And leaves it a drawn match; whose fervour canHatch him whom Nature poached but half a man;His trumpet, like the angel's at the last,Makes the soul rise by a miraculous blast.Was the Mount Athos carved in shape of man110As 'twas designed by th' Macedonian(Whose right hand should a populous land contain,The left should be a channel to the main),His spirit would inform th' amphibious figureAnd, strait-laced, sweat for a dominion bigger.The terror of whose name can out of seven,Like Falstaff's buckram men, make fly eleven.Thus some grow rich by breaking. Vipers thus,By being slain, are made more numerous.No wonder they'll confess no loss of men,120For Rupert knocks 'em till they gig again.They fear the giblets of his train, they fearEven his dog, that four-legged cavalier;He that devours the scraps that Lunsford makes;Whose picture feeds upon a child in steaks;Who, name but Charles, he comes aloft for him,But holds up his malignant leg at Pym.'Gainst whom they have these articles in souse:First, that he barks against the sense o' th' House;Resolved delinquent, to the Tower straight,130Either to th' Lions' or the Bishop's Grate:Next, for his ceremonious wag o' th' tail.(But there the sisterhood will be his bail,At least the Countess will, Lust's Amsterdam,That lets in all religions of the game.)Thirdly, he smells intelligence; that 's betterAnd cheaper too than Pym's from his own letter,Who 's doubly paid (Fortune or we the blinder!)For making plots and then for fox the finder:Lastly, he is a devil without doubt,140For, when he would lie down, he wheels about,Makes circles, and is couchant in a ring;And therefore score up one for conjuring.'What canst thou say, thou wretch!' 'O quarter, quarter!I'm but an instrument, a mere Sir Arthur.If I must hang, O let not our fates vary,Whose office 'tis alike to fetch and carry!'No hopes of a reprieve; the mutinous stirThat strung the Jesuit will dispatch a cur.'Were I a devil as the rabble fears,150I see the House would try me by my peers!'There, Jowler, there! Ah, Jowler! 'st, 'tis nought!Whate'er the accusers cry, they're at a fault:And Glyn and Maynard have no more to sayThan when the glorious Strafford stood at bay.Thus libels but annexed to him, we see,Enjoy a copyhold of victory.Saint Peter's shadow healed; Rupert's is such'Twould find Saint Peter's work and wound as much.He gags their guns, defeats their dire intent;160The cannons do but lisp and compliment.Sure, Jove descended in a leaden showerTo get this Perseus; hence the fatal powerOf shot is strangled. Bullets thus alliedFear to commit an act of parricide.Go on, brave Prince, and make the world confessThou art the greater world and that the less.Scatter th' accumulative king; untrussThat five-fold fiend, the State's Smectymnuus,Who place religion in their vellum ears170As in their phylacters the Jews did theirs.England's a paradise (and a modest word)Since guarded by a cherub's flaming sword.Your name can scare an atheist to his prayers,And cure the chincough better than the bears.Old Sibyl charms the toothache with you; NurseMakes you still children; and the ponderous curseThe clowns salute with is derived from you,'Now, Rupert take thee, rogue, how dost thou do?'In fine the name of Rupert thunders so,180Kimbolton's but a rumbling wheelbarrow.

O that I could but vote myself a poet,

Or had the legislative knack to do it!

Or, like the doctors militant, could get

Dubbed at adventure Verser Banneret!

Or had I Cacus' trick to make my rhymes

Their own antipodes, and track the times!

'Faces about,' says the remonstrant spirit,

'Allegiance is malignant, treason merit.'

Huntingdon colt, that posed the sage recorder,

10Might be a sturgeon now and pass by order.

Had I but Elsing's gift (that splay-mouthed brother

That declares one way and yet means another),

Could I thus write asquint, then, Sir, long since

You had been sung a great and glorious Prince!

I had observed the language of these days,

Blasphemed you, and then periwigged the phrase

With humble service and such other fustian,

Bells which ring backward in this great combustion.

I had reviled you, and without offence;

20The literal and equitable sense

Would make it good. When all fails, that will do 't;

Sure that distinction cleft the Devil's foot!

This were my dialect, would your Highness please

To read me but with Hebrew spectacles;

Interpret counter what is cross rehearsed;

Libels are commendations when reversed.

Just as an optic glass contracts the sight

At one end, but when turned doth multiply 't.

But you're enchanted, Sir, you're doubly free

30From the great guns and squibbing poetry,

Whom neither bilbo nor invention pierces,

Proof even 'gainst th' artillery of verses.

Strange that the Muses cannot wound your mail!

If not their art, yet let their sex prevail.

At that known leaguer, where the bonny Besses

Supplied the bow-strings with their twisted tresses,

Your spells could ne'er have fenced you, every arrow

Had lanced your noble breast and drunk the marrow.

For beauty, like white powder, makes no noise

40And yet the silent hypocrite destroys.

Then use the Nuns of Helicon with pity

Lest Wharton tell his gossips of the City

That you kill women too, nay maids, and such

Their general wants militia to touch.

Impotent Essex! Is it not a shame

Our Commonwealth, like to a Turkish dame,

Should have an eunuch guardian? May she be

Ravished by Charles, rather than saved by thee!

But why, my Muse, like a green-sickness girl,

50Feed'st thou on coals and dirt? A gelding earl

Gives no more relish to thy female palate

Than to that ass did once the thistle sallet.

Then quit the barren theme and all at once,

Thou and thy sisters like bright Amazons,

Give Rupert an alarum. Rupert! one

Whose name is wit's superfetation,

Makes fancy, like eternity's round womb,

Unite all valour, present, past, to come!

He who the old philosophy controls

60That voted down plurality of souls!

He breathes a Grand Committee; all that were

The wonders of their age constellate here.

And as the elder sisters, Growth and Sense,

Souls paramount themselves, in man commence

But faculties of reasons queen; no more

Are they to him (who was complete before),

Ingredients of his virtue. Thread the beads

Of Caesar's acts, great Pompey's and the Swede's,

And 'tis a bracelet fit for Rupert's hand,

70By which that vast triumvirate is spanned.

Here, here is palmistry; here you may read

How long the world shall live and when 't shall bleed.

What every man winds up, that Rupert hath,

For Nature raised him of the Public Faith;

Pandora's brother, to make up whose store

The gods were fain to run upon the score.

Such was the painter's brief for Venus' face;

Item, an eye from Jane; a lip from Grace.

Let Isaac and his cits flay off the plate

80That tips their antlers, for the calf of state;

Let the zeal-twanging nose, that wants a ridge,

Snuffling devoutly, drop his silver bridge;

Yes, and the gossip spoon augment the sum

Although poor Caleb lose his christendom;

Rupert outweighs that in his sterling self

Which their self-want pays in commuting pelf.

Pardon, great Sir, for that ignoble crew

Gains when made bankrupt in the scales with you.

As he, who in his character of Light

90Styled it God's shadow, made it far more bright

By an eclipse so glorious (light is dim

And a black nothing when compared to Him),

So 'tis illustrious to be Rupert's foil

And a just trophy to be made his spoil.

I'll pin my faith on the Diurnal's sleeve

Hereafter, and the Guildhall creed believe;

The conquests which the Common Council hears

With their wide listening mouth from the great Peers

That ran away in triumph. Such a foe

100Can make them victors in their overthrow;

Where providence and valour meet in one,

Courage so poised with circumspection

That he revives the quarrel once again

Of the soul's throne; whether in heart, or brain,

And leaves it a drawn match; whose fervour can

Hatch him whom Nature poached but half a man;

His trumpet, like the angel's at the last,

Makes the soul rise by a miraculous blast.

Was the Mount Athos carved in shape of man

110As 'twas designed by th' Macedonian

(Whose right hand should a populous land contain,

The left should be a channel to the main),

His spirit would inform th' amphibious figure

And, strait-laced, sweat for a dominion bigger.

The terror of whose name can out of seven,

Like Falstaff's buckram men, make fly eleven.

Thus some grow rich by breaking. Vipers thus,

By being slain, are made more numerous.

No wonder they'll confess no loss of men,

120For Rupert knocks 'em till they gig again.

They fear the giblets of his train, they fear

Even his dog, that four-legged cavalier;

He that devours the scraps that Lunsford makes;

Whose picture feeds upon a child in steaks;

Who, name but Charles, he comes aloft for him,

But holds up his malignant leg at Pym.

'Gainst whom they have these articles in souse:

First, that he barks against the sense o' th' House;

Resolved delinquent, to the Tower straight,

130Either to th' Lions' or the Bishop's Grate:

Next, for his ceremonious wag o' th' tail.

(But there the sisterhood will be his bail,

At least the Countess will, Lust's Amsterdam,

That lets in all religions of the game.)

Thirdly, he smells intelligence; that 's better

And cheaper too than Pym's from his own letter,

Who 's doubly paid (Fortune or we the blinder!)

For making plots and then for fox the finder:

Lastly, he is a devil without doubt,

140For, when he would lie down, he wheels about,

Makes circles, and is couchant in a ring;

And therefore score up one for conjuring.

'What canst thou say, thou wretch!' 'O quarter, quarter!

I'm but an instrument, a mere Sir Arthur.

If I must hang, O let not our fates vary,

Whose office 'tis alike to fetch and carry!'

No hopes of a reprieve; the mutinous stir

That strung the Jesuit will dispatch a cur.

'Were I a devil as the rabble fears,

150I see the House would try me by my peers!'

There, Jowler, there! Ah, Jowler! 'st, 'tis nought!

Whate'er the accusers cry, they're at a fault:

And Glyn and Maynard have no more to say

Than when the glorious Strafford stood at bay.

Thus libels but annexed to him, we see,

Enjoy a copyhold of victory.

Saint Peter's shadow healed; Rupert's is such

'Twould find Saint Peter's work and wound as much.

He gags their guns, defeats their dire intent;

160The cannons do but lisp and compliment.

Sure, Jove descended in a leaden shower

To get this Perseus; hence the fatal power

Of shot is strangled. Bullets thus allied

Fear to commit an act of parricide.

Go on, brave Prince, and make the world confess

Thou art the greater world and that the less.

Scatter th' accumulative king; untruss

That five-fold fiend, the State's Smectymnuus,

Who place religion in their vellum ears

170As in their phylacters the Jews did theirs.

England's a paradise (and a modest word)

Since guarded by a cherub's flaming sword.

Your name can scare an atheist to his prayers,

And cure the chincough better than the bears.

Old Sibyl charms the toothache with you; Nurse

Makes you still children; and the ponderous curse

The clowns salute with is derived from you,

'Now, Rupert take thee, rogue, how dost thou do?'

In fine the name of Rupert thunders so,

180Kimbolton's but a rumbling wheelbarrow.

Rupertismus] 'To P. Rupert' in the1647texts (Bodley and Case copies). The odd titleRupertismuswas first given in1651. This poem expresses the earlier and more sanguine Cavalier temper, when things on the whole went well. Rupert's admirable quality as an officer naturally made him a sort of Cavalier cynosure and (with his being half a foreigner) a bugbear to the Roundheads; while neither party had yet found out his fatal defects as a general. Hence 'Rupertismus' not ill described the humour of both sides. The dog who figures so largely was a real dog (said of course to be a familiar spirit), and Professor Firth tells me that he has a pamphlet (1642) entitledObservations upon P. R.'s white dog called Boy, carefully taken by T. B., with a picture of the animal. It was replied to byThe Parliament's Unspotted Bitchnext year.1, 2 The 'legislative knack' to vote oneself everything good and perfect has always been a gift of Houses of Commons. It was rather shrewd of Cleveland to formulate it so early and so well.4 Bannerets being properly dubbed on the field of battle. 'Adventure'1677: 'Adventures'1647,1651,1687: 'adventurers'1653and its group.5 Cacus' trick] of dragging his cattle by the tails.7 spirit] A word their abuse of which was constantly thrown in the face of the Puritans till Swift's thrice rectified vitriol almost destroyed the abuse itself.8 malignant] in the technical Roundhead sense.9 The gibe at Huntingdon, clear enough from the passage, is one of many old local insults. I can remember when it was a little unsafe, in one of the Channel islands, to speak of a donkey. This particular jest recurs in Pepys (May 22, 1677), who was in a way a Huntingdon man.11 Elsing] Clerk to the House of Commons.13 'thus'1677: 'but'1647and the earlier texts. write]1653, 'right'—evidently one of the numerous mistakes due to dictating copy.14 'ThePrince' was a title which Rupert monopolized early and kept till his death.15 'these'1677: 'the'1647,1651,1653,1687.201677'th' equitable'.24 The rhyme of '-cles' to aneesyllable occurs in Dryden.31 'Who'1653and its group.35 Carthage. Rupert's devotion to ladies was lifelong.39 'White' or noiseless powder was a constant object of research.45 Essex wastwicedivorced on the ground mentioned, and his efficiency in the field was not to be much greater than that in the chamber.531677, &c., 'hisbarren theme'.651654'faculty'.1677'Reason Queen'. I am not sure which is right.66-7 So punctuated in1677. Earlier texts and1687'who were to him complete before. Ingredients of his virtue thread' ...1677reads 'virtues'.68 'theSwede': of course Gustavus Adolphus.731647,1651,1653'Whatever'.741677, apparently alone, 'onthe'].781653, evidently by slip, 'forJane'.791647,1651,1653'Cit'z' (not quite bad for 'citizens) and 'flea of the place'. 'Flea' for 'flay' is not uncommon: the rest is absurd. 'Isaac' was Isaac Pennington, father of that Judith whose obliging disposition Mr. Pepys has commemorated.80 'Antlets', which occurs in all, is not impossible for 'antlers' (the everlastingly ridiculed citizen 'horns'). But1647,1651,1653forgot the Golden Calf altogether in their endeavour to provide a rhyme for their own misprint (l. 79) by reading 'Stace'.83 'Gossip's' (1651,1677) is not wanted and hisses unnecessarily.86 'self-wants'1647,1651,1653,1687.1677, most improbably, 'committee'. The whole passage refers to the subscriptions of plate and money in lieu of personal service which Pennington, as Lord Mayor, promised 'on the Public Faith'. Rupert's self outweighs all this vicarious performance.89 'whom'1653,1654.92 to] with1677.95 Diurnal] Which Cleveland satirized in his first published (prose) work.98 As Wharton at Edgehill. 'Mouths'1647,1687.100 them] men1677.109 Was the] 'Twas the1647,1651,1653: Was that1677. 'Was' = 'if it were'.110 designed]1647,1651,1653'defin'd', with a clearf, not longs.113 would]1647,1651,1653might.114 The text is1677, which, however, reads (with the usual want of strait-lacedness) 'straight'.1651,1653, have 'Yet' for 'And', which is corrected in some of their own group, and 'sweats'.117 some] Like Mr. Badman a little later.120 gig] = 'spin like a top'. Dryden uses the word in the same sense and almost in the same phrase in the Prologue toAmphitryon, l. 21:v. sup.,p. 17.121 giblets] Apparently in the sense of 'offal', 'refuse'.123 Lunsford] Sir Thomas, 1610?-1653. The absurd legends about this Cavalier's 'child-eating' are referred to in, originally,Hudibrasand in Lacy'sOld Troop, and at second-hand (probably from the text also, though it is not quoted) in the notes to Scott'sWoodstock.1651and1653have 'which' for second 'that'.124 steaks] All old editions 'stakes'—a very common spelling, which Mr. Berdan keeps. As he modernizes the rest, his readers may be under the impression that the ogre impaled the infants before devouring them, which was not, I think, alleged by the most savoury professor on the Roundhead side.127 souse] = 'pickle'. 'they have these'1677: 'they've several'1647,1651: 'they have several'1653.130 Bishop's]1677,1687editions have the apostrophe. Laud is probably referred to in 'Bishop's'. The force of all this, and its application to other times, are admirable.133 The Countess—pretty clearly Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle (1599-1660)—beauty, wit, harlot, and traitress (though, too late, she repented). Amsterdam] The religious indifference of the Dutch being a common reproach.1677and its followers read 'with' for 'will', which would alter the sense completely.1341647,1651,1653have 'religious' in the well-known noun sense, and it is possibly better.144 Sir Arthur Haselrig (died 1661)—a very busy person throughout the troubles, but not considered as exactly a prime mover.1481677'thecur'.149 'rabble' is1677and seems good, though the earlier 'rebel' might do.152 a fault]1677default—not so technical.153 Serjeants John Glyn[ne] (1607-66) and John Maynard (1602-90) were well-known legal bandogs on the Roundhead side in the earlier stages; but both trimmed cleverly during the later, and sold themselves promptly to the Crown at the Restoration. Glynne died soon. Maynard lived to prosecute the victims of the Popish Plot, and to turn his coat once more, at nearly ninety, for William of Orange.1551647,1651,1653'labels':1677'Thus libels but amount to him we see T' enjoy'.1581677'St. Peter', which looks plausible, though I am not sure that it is better than the genitive.1647,1651,1653have 'yet' for 'and' as in other cases.167 the accumulative king] Pym? who was nicknamed 'king' Pym, and if not exactly 'accumulative' (for his debts were paid by Parliament) must have been expensive and was probably rapacious. Others think it means 'the Committee', 'accumulative' being = 'cumulative' (or rather 'plural'). They quote, not without force, our poet's proseCharacter of a Country Committee man, 'a Committee man is a name of multitude', the phrase 'accumulative treason' occurring in the context.1751677transfers 'the' to before 'Nurse'—a great loss, the unarticled and familiar 'Nurse' being far better—and reads 'Sibils charm'.176 'and'1653, 1677: 'nay and'1647,1651,1687.1771677'Clown salutes'.

Rupertismus] 'To P. Rupert' in the1647texts (Bodley and Case copies). The odd titleRupertismuswas first given in1651. This poem expresses the earlier and more sanguine Cavalier temper, when things on the whole went well. Rupert's admirable quality as an officer naturally made him a sort of Cavalier cynosure and (with his being half a foreigner) a bugbear to the Roundheads; while neither party had yet found out his fatal defects as a general. Hence 'Rupertismus' not ill described the humour of both sides. The dog who figures so largely was a real dog (said of course to be a familiar spirit), and Professor Firth tells me that he has a pamphlet (1642) entitledObservations upon P. R.'s white dog called Boy, carefully taken by T. B., with a picture of the animal. It was replied to byThe Parliament's Unspotted Bitchnext year.

1, 2 The 'legislative knack' to vote oneself everything good and perfect has always been a gift of Houses of Commons. It was rather shrewd of Cleveland to formulate it so early and so well.

4 Bannerets being properly dubbed on the field of battle. 'Adventure'1677: 'Adventures'1647,1651,1687: 'adventurers'1653and its group.

5 Cacus' trick] of dragging his cattle by the tails.

7 spirit] A word their abuse of which was constantly thrown in the face of the Puritans till Swift's thrice rectified vitriol almost destroyed the abuse itself.

8 malignant] in the technical Roundhead sense.

9 The gibe at Huntingdon, clear enough from the passage, is one of many old local insults. I can remember when it was a little unsafe, in one of the Channel islands, to speak of a donkey. This particular jest recurs in Pepys (May 22, 1677), who was in a way a Huntingdon man.

11 Elsing] Clerk to the House of Commons.

13 'thus'1677: 'but'1647and the earlier texts. write]1653, 'right'—evidently one of the numerous mistakes due to dictating copy.

14 'ThePrince' was a title which Rupert monopolized early and kept till his death.

15 'these'1677: 'the'1647,1651,1653,1687.

201677'th' equitable'.

24 The rhyme of '-cles' to aneesyllable occurs in Dryden.

31 'Who'1653and its group.

35 Carthage. Rupert's devotion to ladies was lifelong.

39 'White' or noiseless powder was a constant object of research.

45 Essex wastwicedivorced on the ground mentioned, and his efficiency in the field was not to be much greater than that in the chamber.

531677, &c., 'hisbarren theme'.

651654'faculty'.1677'Reason Queen'. I am not sure which is right.

66-7 So punctuated in1677. Earlier texts and1687'who were to him complete before. Ingredients of his virtue thread' ...1677reads 'virtues'.

68 'theSwede': of course Gustavus Adolphus.

731647,1651,1653'Whatever'.

741677, apparently alone, 'onthe'].

781653, evidently by slip, 'forJane'.

791647,1651,1653'Cit'z' (not quite bad for 'citizens) and 'flea of the place'. 'Flea' for 'flay' is not uncommon: the rest is absurd. 'Isaac' was Isaac Pennington, father of that Judith whose obliging disposition Mr. Pepys has commemorated.

80 'Antlets', which occurs in all, is not impossible for 'antlers' (the everlastingly ridiculed citizen 'horns'). But1647,1651,1653forgot the Golden Calf altogether in their endeavour to provide a rhyme for their own misprint (l. 79) by reading 'Stace'.

83 'Gossip's' (1651,1677) is not wanted and hisses unnecessarily.

86 'self-wants'1647,1651,1653,1687.1677, most improbably, 'committee'. The whole passage refers to the subscriptions of plate and money in lieu of personal service which Pennington, as Lord Mayor, promised 'on the Public Faith'. Rupert's self outweighs all this vicarious performance.

89 'whom'1653,1654.

92 to] with1677.

95 Diurnal] Which Cleveland satirized in his first published (prose) work.

98 As Wharton at Edgehill. 'Mouths'1647,1687.

100 them] men1677.

109 Was the] 'Twas the1647,1651,1653: Was that1677. 'Was' = 'if it were'.

110 designed]1647,1651,1653'defin'd', with a clearf, not longs.

113 would]1647,1651,1653might.

114 The text is1677, which, however, reads (with the usual want of strait-lacedness) 'straight'.1651,1653, have 'Yet' for 'And', which is corrected in some of their own group, and 'sweats'.

117 some] Like Mr. Badman a little later.

120 gig] = 'spin like a top'. Dryden uses the word in the same sense and almost in the same phrase in the Prologue toAmphitryon, l. 21:v. sup.,p. 17.

121 giblets] Apparently in the sense of 'offal', 'refuse'.

123 Lunsford] Sir Thomas, 1610?-1653. The absurd legends about this Cavalier's 'child-eating' are referred to in, originally,Hudibrasand in Lacy'sOld Troop, and at second-hand (probably from the text also, though it is not quoted) in the notes to Scott'sWoodstock.1651and1653have 'which' for second 'that'.

124 steaks] All old editions 'stakes'—a very common spelling, which Mr. Berdan keeps. As he modernizes the rest, his readers may be under the impression that the ogre impaled the infants before devouring them, which was not, I think, alleged by the most savoury professor on the Roundhead side.

127 souse] = 'pickle'. 'they have these'1677: 'they've several'1647,1651: 'they have several'1653.

130 Bishop's]1677,1687editions have the apostrophe. Laud is probably referred to in 'Bishop's'. The force of all this, and its application to other times, are admirable.

133 The Countess—pretty clearly Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle (1599-1660)—beauty, wit, harlot, and traitress (though, too late, she repented). Amsterdam] The religious indifference of the Dutch being a common reproach.1677and its followers read 'with' for 'will', which would alter the sense completely.

1341647,1651,1653have 'religious' in the well-known noun sense, and it is possibly better.

144 Sir Arthur Haselrig (died 1661)—a very busy person throughout the troubles, but not considered as exactly a prime mover.

1481677'thecur'.

149 'rabble' is1677and seems good, though the earlier 'rebel' might do.

152 a fault]1677default—not so technical.

153 Serjeants John Glyn[ne] (1607-66) and John Maynard (1602-90) were well-known legal bandogs on the Roundhead side in the earlier stages; but both trimmed cleverly during the later, and sold themselves promptly to the Crown at the Restoration. Glynne died soon. Maynard lived to prosecute the victims of the Popish Plot, and to turn his coat once more, at nearly ninety, for William of Orange.

1551647,1651,1653'labels':1677'Thus libels but amount to him we see T' enjoy'.

1581677'St. Peter', which looks plausible, though I am not sure that it is better than the genitive.1647,1651,1653have 'yet' for 'and' as in other cases.

167 the accumulative king] Pym? who was nicknamed 'king' Pym, and if not exactly 'accumulative' (for his debts were paid by Parliament) must have been expensive and was probably rapacious. Others think it means 'the Committee', 'accumulative' being = 'cumulative' (or rather 'plural'). They quote, not without force, our poet's proseCharacter of a Country Committee man, 'a Committee man is a name of multitude', the phrase 'accumulative treason' occurring in the context.

1751677transfers 'the' to before 'Nurse'—a great loss, the unarticled and familiar 'Nurse' being far better—and reads 'Sibils charm'.

176 'and'1653, 1677: 'nay and'1647,1651,1687.

1771677'Clown salutes'.


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