That piece of
legislative
pageantry !
Marvell - Poems
That he should be styled Defender of the Faith,
Who believes not a word what the word of God
saith.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the Duke should turn papist, and that church
defy,
For which his own father a martyr did die.
CHARING.
Though he changed his religion, I hope he 's . so
civil
Not to think his own father is gone to the Devil.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That bondage and beggary should be in a nation
By a cursed House of Commons, and a blessed
Restoration.
CHARING.
To see a white staff make a beggar a lord.
And scarce a wise man at a long council-board.
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260 THE rOEMS
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the Bank should be seized, yet the 'Chequer
6o poor,
(Lord have mercy ! ) and a cross might be set on
the door.
CHARING.
That a million and half should be the revenue,
Yet the King of his debts pay no man a
penny.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the King should consume three kingdoms'
estates.
And yet all the court be as poor as church rats.
CHARING.
That of four seas dominion, and of all their
guarding,
No token should appear, but a poor copper
farthing.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Our worm-eaten ships to be laid up at Chatham,
Not our trade to secure, but for fools to come
at 'em. *
* Alluding to our ships being burned by the Dutch.
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OF MARVELL. 261
CHARING.
And our few ships abroad become Tripoli's scorn.
By pawning for victuals their guns at Leghorn.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That making us slaves by horse and foot guards.
For restoring the king, shall be all our rewards.
CHARING.
The basest ingratitude ever was heard I
But tyrants ungrateful ai*e always afeared.
WOOL-CHURCH.
On Harry the Seventh's head who placed the
crown,
Was after rewarded by losing his own.
CHARING.
That parliament-men should rail at the court,
And get good preferments immediately for 't ;
To see them who suffered for father and son.
And helped to bring the latter to his throne,
Who with lives and estates did loyally serve.
And yet for all this can nothing deserve ;
The king looks not on 'em, preferment 's denied 'em.
The roundheads insult, and the courtiers deride
'em,
And none get preferments, but who will ^betray
Their country to ruin ; 'tis that opes the way
Of the bold talking members.
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262 THE POEMS
WOOL-CHDRCH.
Of the bastards you add
What a number of rascally lords have been made.
CHARIXO.
That traitors to a country, in a bribed House of
Commons,
Should give away millions at every summons.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Yet some of those givers, such beggarly villains,
As not to be trusted for twice Mty shillings.
CHARING.
No wonder that beggars should still be for giving,
Who out of what 's given do get a good living.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Four knights and a knave, who were burgesses
made,
For selling their consciences were liberally paid.
CHARING.
How base are the souls of such low-prized sinners.
Who vote with the country for drink and for
dinners !
WOOL-CHURCH.
'Tis they who brought on us this scandalous yoke.
Of excising our cups, and taxing our smoke.
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OP MARVELL. 263
CHARING.
But thanks to the whores who made the king
For giving no more the rogues are prorogued.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That a king should endeavour to make a war
cease.
Which augments and secures his own profit and
peace.
CHARING.
And plenipotentiaries sent into France,
With an addle-headed knight, and a lord without
brains.
WOOL-CHURCH.
That the king should send for another French
whore,
When one already had made him so poor»
CHARING.
The misses take place, each advanced to be
duchess.
With pomp great as queens in their coach and
six horses ;
Their bastards made dukes, earls, viscounts, and
lords,
And all the high titles that honour affords.
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264 THE POEMS
WOOL-CHUKCH.
While these brate and their mothers do live in
such plenty,
The nation's impoverished, and the 'Chequer
quite empty ;
And though war was pretended when the money
was lent,
More on whores, than in ships or in war, hath
been spent.
CHARING.
Enough, my dear brother, although we speak
reason.
Yet truth many times being punished for treason.
We ought to be wary, and bridle our tongue,
Bold speaking hath done both men and beasts
wrong.
When the ass so boldly rebuked the pi-ophet.
Thou knowest what danger had like to come of it ;
Though the beast gave his master ne'er an ill
word.
Instead of a cudgel, Balaam wished for a sword.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Truth 's as bold as a lion, I am not afraid ;
I '11 prove every tittle of what I have said.
Our riders are absent, who is 't that can hear ?
Let's be true to ourselves, whom then need we fear?
Where is thy king gone ?
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OF MARYELL. 265
CHARING.
To sec bishop Laud.
WOOL-CHURCH.
To cuckold a scrivener, mine is in masquerade ;
For on such occasions he oft steals away,
And returns to remount me about break of day.
In very dark nights sometimes you may find him,
With a harlot got up on my crupper behind him.
CHARING.
Pause brother awhile, and calmly consider
What thou hast to say against my royal rider.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Thy priest-ridden king turned desperate fighter
For the surplice, lawn-sleeves, the cross, and the
mitre ;
Till at last on the scaffold he was left in the
lurch.
By knaves, who cried up themselves for the
church,
Archbishops and bishops, archdeacons and deans.
CHARING.
Thy king will ne*er fight unless for his queans.
WOOL-CHURCH.
He that dies for ceremonies, dies like a fool.
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266 THE POEMS
CHARING.
The king on thy back is a lamentable tool.
WOOL-CHURCH.
The goat and the lion I equally hate,
And freemen alike value life and estate ;
Though the father and son be different rods,
Between the two scourgers we find little odds ;
Both infamous stand in three kingdoms' votes,
This for picking our pockets, that for cutting our
throats.
CHARINO.
More tolerable are the lion-king's slaughters.
Than the goat making whores of our wives and
our daughters :
The debauched and cruel since they equally
gall us,
I had rather bear Nero than Sardanapalus.
WOOL-CHURCH.
One of the two tyrants must still be our case.
Under all who shall reign of the false Stuart's
race.
DeWitt and Cromwell had each a brave soul,
I freely declare it, I am for old Noll ;
Though his goverament did a tyrant resemble,
He made England great, and his enemies
tremble.
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OP MARVELL. 267
CHARING.
Thy rider puts no man to death in his wrath,
But is buried alive in lust and in sloth.
WOOL-CHURCH.
What is thy opinion of James, Duke of York ?
CHARING.
The same that the frogs had of Jupiter's stork.
With the Turk in his head, and the Pope in his
heart.
Father Patrick's disciples will make £lngland
smart
If e'er he be king, I know Bntain's doom,
We must all to a stake, or be converts to Rome.
Ah, Tudor ! ah, Tudor ! of Stuarts enough ;
None ever reigned like old Bess in the ruff.
Her Walsingham could dark counsels unriddle.
And our Sir Joseph write news, books, and fiddle.
WOOL-CHURCH.
Truth, brother, well said ; but that 's somewhat
bitter ;
His perfumed predecessor was never more
fitter :
Yet we have one secretary honest and wise ;
For that very reason, he 's never to rise.
But can'st thou devise when things will be
mended ?
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268 THE POEMS
CHARING.
When the reign of the line of the Stuarts is ended.
CONCLUSIOX.
If speeches from animals in Rome's first age,
Prodigious events did surely presage,
That should come to pass, all mankind may
swear
That which two inanimate horses declare.
But I should have told you before the jades
parted,
Both galloped to Whitehall, and there humbly
farted;
Which tyranny's downfall portended much more.
Than all that the beasts had spoken before.
If the Delphic Sibyl's oracular speeches
(As learned men say) came out of their breeches.
Why might not our hoi*ses, since words are but
wind.
Have the spirit of prophecy likewise behind ?
Though tymnts make laws, which they strictly
proclaim.
To conceal their own faults and to cover their
shame, [the wall,
Yet the beasts in the field, and the stones in
Will publish their faults and prophesy their fall ;
When they take from the people the freedom of
words.
They teach them the sooner to fall to their swords.
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OP MAUVELL. 269
Let the city drink coffee and quietly groan, —
They who conquered the father won't be slaves
to the son.
For wine and strong drink make tumults increase,
Chocolate, tea, and coffee, are liquors of peace ;
No quarrels, or oaths are among those who drink
'em,
'Tis Bacchus and the brewer swear, damn *em /
and sink *em !
Then Charles thy edict against coffee recall,
There 's ten times more treason in brandy and ale.
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270 THE POEMS
HODGE'S VISION FROM THE MONUMENT,
DECEMBER 1675.
A conntiy clown called Hodoe, went up to yiew
The pjrramid; pray mark what did ensue.
1
When Hodge had numbered up how many score
The airy pyramid contained, he swore
No mortal wight e'er climbed so high before.
To the best vantage placed, he views around
The imperial town, with lofty turrets crowned ;
That wealthy storehouse of the bounteous flood.
Whose peaceful tides o'erflow our land with
good;
Confused forms flit by his wandering eyes,
And his rapped soul *s o'erwhelmed with extasies.
Some god it seems has entered his plain breast,
And with 's abode the rustic mansion blessed ;
A mighty change he feels in every part.
Light shines in 's eyes, and wisdom rules his
heart.
So when her pious son fair Venus showed
His flaming Troy, with slaughtered Dardans
strewed,
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OP MARYELL. 271
She purged his optics, filled with mortal night.
And Troy's sad doom he read by heaven's light.
Such light divine broke on the clouded eyes
Of humble Hodge.
Regions remote, courts, councils, policies,
The circling wiles of tyrants* treacheries
He views, discerns, unciphers, penetrates,
From Charles's Dukes, to Europe's armed
states.
First he beholds proud Rome and France com-
bined,
By double vassalage to enslave mankind ;
That would the soul, this would the body sway,
Their bulls and edicts none must disobey.
For these with war sad Europe they inflame,
Rome says for God, and France declares for
fame.
See, soni^ of Satan, how religion's force
Is gentleness, fame bought with blood a curse.
He whom all styled ^ Delight of human kind,"
Justice and mercy, truth with honour joined ;
His kindly rays cherished the teeming earth.
And struggling virtue blessed with prosperous
birth.
Like Chaos you the tottering globe invade,
Religion cheat, and war ye make a trade.
Next the lewd palace of the plotting King,
To 's eyes new scenes of frantic folly bring.
Behold (says he) the fountain of our woe.
From whence our vices and our ruin flow.
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}
272 THE POEII8
Here parents their own offspring prostitute.
By such vile arts to obtain some viler suit.
Here blooming youth adore Priapus' shrine,
And priests pronounce him sacred and divine.
The goatish god behold in his alcove,
(The secret scene of damned incestuous love)
Melting in lust, and drunk like Lot, he lies
Betwixt two bright daughter-divinities.
Oh ! that like Saturn he had eat his brood.
And had been thus stained with their impious
blood;
He had in that less ill, more manhood showed.
Cease, cease, (O Charles) thus to pollute our
isle.
Return, return, to thy long-wished exile ;
There with thy court defile thy neighbour-
states.
And with their crimes precipitate their fates.
See where the Duke in damned divan does sit,
To *8 vast designs wracking his pigmy wit ;
Whilst a clioice senate of the Ignatian crew.
The ways to murder, treason, conquest show.
Dissenters they oppress with law severe,
That whilst to wound those innocents we fear.
Their cursed sect we may be forced to spare.
Twice the reformed must fight a bloody prize.
That Rome and France may on their ruin rise,
Old Bonner single heretics did burn.
These reformed cities into ashes turn.
And every year new fires do make us mourn.
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OP MARVELL. 273
■■}
Ireland stands ready for his cruel reign ;
Well-fattened once, she gapes for blood again,
For blood of English martyrs basely slain.
Our valiant youth abroad must learn the trade
Of unjust war, their country to invade,
Whilst others here do guard us, to^ prepare
Our galled necks his iron yoke to bear.
Lo ! how the Wight already is betrayed,
And Bashaw Holmes does the poor isle invade.
To ensure the plot, Prance must her legions
lend,
Rome to restore, and to enthrone Rome's friend. .
*Tis in return, James does our fleet betray,
(That fleet whose thunder made the world obey. )
Ships once our safety, and our glorious might,
Are doomed with worms and rottenness to fight,
Whilst France rides sovereign o'er the British
main,
Our merchants robbed, and our brave seamen>
ta'en.
Thus the rash Phaeton with fury hurled,
And rapid rage, consumes our British world-
Blast him, O heavens ! in his mad career,
And let this isle no more his frenzy fear.
Cursed James, 'tis he that all good men abhor.
False to thyself, and to thy friend much more ;
To him who did thy promised pardon hope,*
Whilst with pretended joy he kissed the rope :
* Coleman.
18
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ie, I
274 Tii:-: roKMS
O'erwhelmed with guilt, and gasping out a lie,
Deceived and unprepai*ed, thou \ei*d6t him die,
With equal gratitude and charity.
In spite of Jermin, and of black -mouthed
fame.
This Stuart's trick legitimates thy name.
With one consent we all her death desire,
Who durst her husband's and her king's
conspire. *
And now just Heaven 's prepared to set us free,
Heaven and our hopes are both opposed by
thee.
Thus fondly thou dost Hyde's old treason Qwn,
Thus make thy new-suspected treason known.
Bless me I What 's that at Westminster
I see?
That piece of legislative pageantry !
To our dear James has Rome her conclave
lent?
Or has Charles bought the Paris parliament ?
None else James would promote with §o much
zeal,
Who by proviso hopes the crown to steal.
Sec how in humble guise the slaves advance.
To tell a tale of army, and of France,
Whilst proud prerogative in scornful guise.
Their fear, love, duty, danger, does despise.
* Queen Catherine wus suspected to be in a plot against
the king's life.
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OF MARVELL. 275
There, in a bribed committee, they contrive
To give our birthrights to prerogative :
Give, did I say ? They sell, and sell so dear
That half each tax Danby distributes there.
Danby, 'tis fit the price so great shall be,
They sell religion, sell their liberty.
These vipers have their mother's entrails torn,
And would by force a second time be born.
They haunt the place to which you once were sent,
This ghost of a departed parliament.
Gibbets and haltei*s, countrymen, prepare,
Let none, let none their renegadoes spare.
When that day comes, we '11 part the sheep and
goats.
The spruce bribed monsieurs from the true gray
coats.
New parliaments, like manna, all tastes please,
But kept too long, our food turns our disease.
From that loathed sight, Hodge turned his weep-
ing eyes.
And London thus alarms with loyal cries :
** Though common danger does approach so nigh.
This stupid town sleeps in security.
Out of your golden dreams awake, awake,
Your all, though you see not, your all 's at
stake !
More dreadful fires approach your falling town ^
Than those which burned your stately struc- I
tures down, j
Such fatal fires as once in Smithfield shone. ''
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276 THE POEMS
If then je fftaj till Edwards orders give,*
No mortal arm your safety can retrieve.
See how with golden baits the crafly Gaul
Has bribed our geese to yield the capitoL
And will ye tamely see yourselves betrayed ?
Will none stand up in our dear country's aid ?
<' Self-preservation, nature's first great law,
All the creation, except man, does awe :
'Twas in him fixed, till lying priests defaced
His heaven-bom mind, and nature's tablets
rased.
Tell me, ye forging crew, what law revealed
By God, to kings iha jus dluinum sealed?
If to do good, yeju9 divtmcm call.
It is the grand pi^erogative of all :
If to do ill, unpunished^ be their right,
Such power's not granted that great king of
night.
Man's life moves on the poles of hope and fear,
Keward and pain all ordei*s do revere.
But if your dear lord sovereign you would spare,
Admonish him in his blood-thii*sty heir.
So when the royal lion does offend,
The beaten cur*s example makes him mend. *'
This said, poor Hodge, then in a broken tone.
Cried out, "Oh Charles! thy life, thy life, thy
crown !
♦ Edwards, then lorJ-mayor.
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OF MARVELL. 277
Ambitious James, and bloody priests conspire,
Plots, papists, murders, massacres, and fire ;
Poor Protestants ! " with that his eyes did roll,
His body fell, out fled his frighted soul.
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278 THE POEMS
CLARENDON'S HOUSE-WABMING.
When Clarendon had discerned beforehand
(As the cause can easily foretell the effect)
At once three deluges threatening our land,*
'Twas the season, he thought, to turn architect
Us Mars, and Apollo, and Vulcan consume ;
While he the betrayer of England and
Flanders,
Like the kingfisher chooseth to build in the
broom,
And nestles in flames like the salamander.
But observing that mortals run oflen behind,
(So unreasonable are the rates they buy at)
His omnipotence therefore much rather designed.
How he might create a house with a fiat
He had read of Rhodope, a lady of Thrace,
Who was digged up so often ere she did marry ;
* The Dutch war, the plague, and the fire of London.
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OP MARYELL. 279
And wished that his daughter had had as much
grace,
To erect him a pyramid out of her quarry.
But then recollecting how the harper Aniphion
Made Thebes dance aloft while he fiddled and
sung.
He thought, as an instrument he was most free on,
To build with the Jew's-trump of his own tongue.
Yet a precedent fitter in Virgil he found,
Of African Poultney, and Tyrian Dide ;
That he begged for a palace so much of his
ground,*
As might carry the measure and name of a
Hyde.
Thus daily his gouty inventions him pained,
And all for to save the expenses of brickbat ;
That engine so fatal which Denham had brained.
And too much resembled this wife's chocolate.
But while these devices he all doth compare.
None solid enough seemed for his strong castor ;
He himself would not dwell in a castle of air.
Though he had built full many a one for his
master.
* The Enii of Clarendon hud a grant from Khig Charles
the Second, for a piece of ground near St. James's, to build
% house on.
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280 THE POEMS
Already he had got all our money and cattle,
To buy us for slaves and purcliase our lands
What Joseph by famine, lie wrought by sea battle ;
Nay, scarce the priest's portion could 'scape
from his hands.
And hence like Pharaoh that Israel pressed
To make mortar and brick, yet allowed *em no
straw,
He cared not though Eg}'pt's ten plagues us
distressed,
So he could to build but make policy law.
The Scotch forts and Dunkirk, but that they
were sold,
He would have demolished to raise up his
walls ;
Nay e'en fi-om Tangier have sent back for the
mould,
But that he had nearer the stones of St.
Paul's. *
His woods would come in at the easier rate.
So long as the yards had a deal or a spar :
His friend in the navy would not be ingrate,
To grudge him some timber, who fi-amcd him
the war.
* There was then a design of repairing St. PauPs, which
was afterwards laid aside, and the stones intended for that,
were bought by the Lord Cl;irendon to build his house with.
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OF MARVELL. 281
To proceed in the model, he called in his Aliens,
The two Aliens when jovial, who ply him with
gallons ;
The two Aliens who served his blind justice for
balance,
The two Aliens who served his injustice for
talons.
Thej approve it thus far, and said it was fine ;
Yet his lordship to finish it would be unable,
Unless all abroad he divulged the design,
For his house then would grow like a vegetable.
His rent would no more in arrear run to Wor'ster ;
He should dwell more noble and cheap too at
home.
While into a fabric the presents would muster ;
As by hook and by crook the world clustered
of atom.
He liked the advice and then soon it essayed,
And presents crowd headlong to give good
example.
So the bribes overlaid her that Rome once be*
trayed ;
The tribes ne'er contributed so to the temple.
Straight judges, priests, bishops, true sons of the
seal.
Sinners, governors, farmers, bankers, patentees,
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282 THE FOEMS
Bring in the whole mite of a year at a meal.
As the Chedder club's dairy to the incorporate
cheese.
Bulteale's, BeaVn's,* Morley's, Wren's fingers
with telling
Were shrivelled, and Clatterbuck's, Eager*^,
and Kipps' ;
Since the act of oblivion was never such selling,
As at this benevolence out of the snips.
Twas then that the chimney-contractors he smoked,
Nor would take his beloved canary in kind :
But he swore that the patent should ne'er be
revoked,
No, would the whole parliament kiss him behind.
Like Jove under ^tna o'erwhelming the giant.
For foundation the Bristol sunk in the earth's
bowel ;
And St John must now for the leads be compliant,
Or his right hand shall be cut off with a trowel.
For surveying the building, 'twas Prat did the feat ;
But for the expense he relied on Woi'stenholm,
Who sat heretofore at the king's receipt.
But received now and paid the Chancellor's
custom.
* Perhaps Beachem, a jeweller mentioned by Pepys.
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OF MAKVKLL. 283
By subsidies thus both cleric and laic,
And with matter profane cemented with holy ;
He finished at last his palace mosaic,
By a model more excellent than Lesly*s folly.
And upon the terrace, to consummate all,
A lantern like Faux's, surveys the burnt
town,
And shows on the top by the regal gilt ball,
Where you are to expect the sceptre and
crown.
Fond city, its rubbish and ruins that builds,
Like vain chemists, a flower from its ashes
returning.
Your metropolis house is in St. James's fields,
And till there you remove, you shall never
leave burning.
This temple of war and of peace is the shrine.
Where this idol of state sits adored and
accursed ;
To handsel his altar and nostrils divine.
Great Buckingham's sacrifice must be the
first.
Now some (as all builders must censure abide)
Throw dust in its front, and blame situation :
And others as much reprehend his back-side.
As too narrow by far for his expatiation ;
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284 THE POEMS
But do not consider how in process of times,
That for namesake he may with Hyde-Park it
enhirge,
And with that convenience he soon, for his crimes,
At Tyburn may land and spare the Tower-
barge.
Or rather how wisely his stall was built near.
Lest with di'iving too far his tallow impair ;
When like the good ox, ft>r public good-cheer.
He comes to be roasted next St. James's fair.
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OF MARVELL. 285
UPON ins HOUSE.
Here lie the sacred bones
Of Paul beguiled of his stones :
Here lie golden briberies,
The price of ruined families ;
The cavalier's debenture wall,
Fixed on an eccentric basis :
Here 's Dunkirk-Town and Tangier- Hall,*
The Queen's marriage and all.
The Dutchman's templum pctcis. f
* Some call it Dunkirk house, intimating that it was
builded by liis share of the price of Dunkirk. Tangier was
part of Queen Catherine's portion, the match between whom
and the King he was suspected to have a hand in making.
t It was said he had money of the Dutch, to treat of a
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286 THE POEMS
ON THB
LORD MAYOR, AND COURT OF ALDERMEN,
rKESEJfTVXQ THE Kli(Q AXD THE DUKE OF YOItK, E^VCH
WITH ▲ COPT OP HIS FUKKDUOI, AKNO DOM. 1674.
A BALLAD.
The Londoners gent
To the King do present,
In a booc, the City maggot ;
'Tis a thing full of weight,
That requires all the might
Of the whole Guiid-IIall team to drag it
II.
Whilst their churches unbuilt.
And their houses undwelt,
And their orphans want bread to feed 'em ;
Themselves they've bereft
Of the little wealth they 'd left,
To make an offering of their freedom.
O ye addle-brained cits !
Who henceforth, in their wits,
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OP MARVKLL. 287
Would intrust their youth to your heeding ?
When in diamonds and gold
You have him thus enrolled ?
Ye know both his friends and his breeding !
IV.
Beyond sea he began,
Where such a riot he ran,
That every-one there did leave him ;
And now he 's come o'er
Ten times worse than before,
When none but such fools would receive
him.
V.
He ne'er knew, not he,
How to serve or be free.
Though he has passed through so many adven-
tures;
But e'er since he was bound,
(That is, he was crowned)
He has every day broke his indentui*es.
VI.
He spends all his days
In running to plays,
When he ought in his shop to be poring ;
And he wastes all his nights
In his constant delights,
Of revelling, drinking, and whoring.
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2S8 THE POEMS
VII.
Throughout Lombard-street,
Each roan he did meet,
He would i*un on the score with and borrow ;
When they asked for their own,
He was broke and was gone,
And his creditors all left to sorrow.
VIII.
Though oft bound to the peace.
Yet he never would cease
To vex his poor neighbours with quarrels ;
And when he was beat,
He still made his retreat
To his Clevelands, his Nells, and his Carwells.
Naj, his company lewd
Were twice grown so rude.
That had not fear taught him sobriety,
And the house being wcU barred.
With guard upon guard,
They 'd robbed us of all our propriety.
X.
Such a plot was laid,
Had not Ashley betrayed.
As had cancelled all former disasters ;
And your wives had been strumpets
To his highness's trumpets,
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OF MARVELL. 289
And footboys bad all been your masters.
XI.
So many are tbe debts,
And tbe bastards be gets,
Wbicb must all be defrayed by London ;
Tbat notwitbstanding the care
Of Sir Thomas Player,
The chamber must needs be undone.
XII.
His words or his oath
Cannot bind him to troth,
And he values not credit or history ;
And though he has served through
Two 'prenticeships now,
He knows not his trade nor his mystery.
xin.
Then,. London,, rejoice*
In thy fortunate choice.
To have him made free of thy spices;
And do not mistrust,
He may once grow more just.
When he 's worn off his follies and vices.
XIV.
And what little thing
Is that which you bring
To the Duke, the kingdom's darling ?
19
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290 THE POEMS
Ye hug it, and draw
Like ants at a straw,
Though too small for the gristle of sterling.
XV.
It is a hox of pills
To cure the Duke's ills ?
He is too far gone to begin it !
Or does your fine show
In processioning go,
With the pyx and the host within it ?
XVI.
The very first head
Of the oath you him read,
Show you all how fit he 's to govern.
When in heart, you all knew,
He ne'er was, nor '11 be, true
To his country or to his sovereign.
XVII.
And wJio, pray, could swear,
That he would forbear
To cull out the good of an alien,
Who still doth advance
The government of France
With a wife and religion Italian ?
XVIII.
And now, worshipful sirs,
Go fold up your furs.
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OF MAUVELL. 291
And Viners turn again, turn again ;
I see (whoe'er *s freed,)
You for slaves are decreed,
Until you burn again, burn agsiin.
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292 TUK POEMS
ON BLOOD'S STEALING THE CROWN.
When daring Blood, Lis rent to have regained,
Upon the English diadem distrained,
He chose the cassock, surcingle, and gown,
The fittest mask for one that i*obs the crown :
But his lay-pity underneath prevailed,
And whilst he saved the keeper's life he failed ;
With the priest's vestment had he but put on
The prelate's cruelty, the crown had gone.
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OF MARVELL. 293
NOSTRADMUS' PROPHECY.
For faults and follies London's doom shall fix ;
And she must sink in flames in sixty-six.
Fire-balls shall fly, but few shall see the train,
As far as from Whitehall to Pudding-Lane,
To burn ihe city, which again shall rise,
Beyond all hopes, aspiring to the skies,
Where vengeance dwells. But there is one
thing more.
Though its walls stand, shall bring the city lower :
When legislators shall their trust betray,
Saving their own, shall give the rest away ;
And those false men, by the easy people sent^
Give taxes to the king by parliament ;
When barefaced villains shall not blush to cheat.
And chequer-doors shall shut up Lombard-street ; *
* In tho year 1672, the court resolving on a war, looked
out for money to carry it on. The method they took to get
it was this: The King had agreed with some bankers, with
whom he bad contracted a debt of near a million nn<l a half,
to assign over the revenue to them ; and he paid tliem at the
rate of eight per cent, and in some proclamations promised
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294 THE POEMS
When plajers come to act the part of queens,
Within the curtains, and behind the scenes ; *
When sodomj shall be prime minister's s|)ort,
And whoring shall be the least crime at court ;
When boys shall take their sisters for their
mate,
And practise incest between seven and eight ;
When no man knows in whom to put his trust,
And e'en to rob the chequer shall be just ;
When declarations, lies, and every oath,
Shall be in use at court, but faith and troth ;
When two good kings shall be at Brentford
town.
And when in London there shall not be one ;
When the seat's given to a talking fool.
Whom wise men laugh at, and whom women rule,
A minister able only in his tongue,
To make harsh empty speeches two hours long ;
When an old Scotch covenanter shall be
The champion for the English hierarchy ; t
When bishops shall lay all religion by.
And strive by law to establish tyranny ;
he would make good all his assignments, till the whole debt
was paid; but, in order for a supply, the payments were
stopped for a your. This was a great shock to the b:inkcr> ;
for many of the nobility and gentry, who were in the sccrc,
took their money, before tlie design was publicly known, out
of the hands of their bankers.
♦ Reflecting on tlie King for taking Mrs. Gwyn from the
ttage.
t Lauderdale, who was at first a noted Dissenter.
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OP MARVELL. 295
When a lean treasurer shall in one year
Make himself fat, his king and people hare ;
When the English prince shall Englishmen
despise,
And think French only loyal, Irish wise ;
When wooden shoon shall be the English wear,
And Magna Charta shall no more appear ; —
Then the English shall a greater tyrant know,
Than either Greek or Latin story show ;
Their wives to 's lust exposed, their wealth to 's
spoil.
With groans, to fill his treasury, they toil ;
But like the Belides must sigh in vain,
For that still filled flows out as fast again ;
Then they with envious eyes shall Belgium see,
And wish in vain Venetian liberty.
The frogs too late, grown weary of their pain.
Shall pray to Jove to take him back again.
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296 THE POEMS
ROYAL RESOLUTIONS.
When plate was at pawn, and fob at an ebb.
And spider might weave in bowels its weby
And stomach as empty as brain ;
Then Charles without acre.
Did swear by his Maker,
If e'er I see England again,
I '11 have a religion all of my own,
Whether Popish or Protestant shall not be
known ;
And if it prove troublesome, I will have none.
II.
I '11 have a long parliament always to friend.
And furnish my treasure as fast as I spend,
And if they will not, they shall have an end.
m.
I '11 have a council shall sit always still.
And give me a license to do what I will ;
And two secrer-aries shall piss through a quill.
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OF MARVELL. 297
IV.
Mj insolent brother shall bear all the sway ;
If parliaments murmur, I '11 send him away.
And call him again as soon as I may.
I *11 have a rare son, in marrying though marred,
Shall govern (if not my kingdom) my guard,
And shall be successor to me or Gerard.
VI.
I '11 have a new London instead of the old.
With wide streets and uniform to my old mould ;
But if they build too fast, I '11 bid 'em hold.
VII.
The ancient nobility I will lay by,
And new ones create their rooms to supply,
And they shall raise fortunes for my own fry.
VIII.
Some one I '11 advance from a common descent.
