I fear they'll force me to make bread of As to contemn those edicts he appointed, stones. My life they prize at such a slender rate, That in my absence they draw bills of hate, To prove the king a traytor to the state. How can they prize the power of his anointed? Augment my patience, nullifie my hate, Preserve my issue, and inspire my mate; Yet, though we perish, bless this Church and State, XIV. TIIE SALE OF REBELLIOUS HOUSEHOLD STUFF. THIS sarcastic exultation of triumphant loyalty is printed from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys Collection, corrected by two others, one of which is preserved in A choice collection of one hundred and twenty loyal songs, etc., 1684, 12mo.-To the tune of "Old Simon the king." REBELLION hath broken up house, And hath left me old lumber to sell; I'll promise to use you well: Says old Simon the king, etc. Will you buy any bacon-flitches, The fattest, that ever were spent? They're the sides of the old committees, Fed up in the long parliament. Here's a pair of bellows, and tongs, And for a small matter I'll sell ye 'um ; They are made of the presbyters lungs, To blow up the coals of rebellion. Says old Simon, etc, I had thought to have given them once They are consecrate to the church: They will make the big organs roar, Here's a couple of stools for sale, One's square, and t'other is round; Betwixt them both the tail Of the Rump fell down to the ground. Will you buy the states council-table, Which was made of the good wain Scot? The frame was a tottering Babel To uphold the Independent plot. Says old Simon, etc, Here's the beesom of Reformation, Which should have made clean the floor, For now it has spun a fair thread. Here's a glyster-pipe well try'd, To cure the colds of the Rump. Which once was a justice of peace, Here's a roll of the states tobacco, Says old Simon, etc. Yet the ashes may happily serve To cure the scab of the nation, To Rebellion by innovation. The like was scarce ever gotten, For many plots it has found out Before they ever were thought on. Says old Simon, etc. Will you buy the Rump's great saddle, With which it jocky'd the nation? Alluding probably to Major-General Harrison, a butcher's son, who assisted Cromwell in turning out the Long Parliament, April 20, 1653. And here is the bitt, and the bridle, And curb of Dissimulation: With an Independent smock. Will you buy a Conscience oft turn'd, Says old Simon, etc. Here's the purse of the public faith; And here are old Noll's brewing vessels, t To all these matters before ye? *This was a cant name given to Cromwell's wife by the Royalists, though her name was Elizabeth. She was taxed with exchanging the kitchen stuff for the candles used in the Protector's household, etc. See Gentleman's Magazine for March 1788, p. 242. + Cromwell had in his younger years followed the brewing trade at Huntingdon. Colonel Hewson is said to have been originally a cobbler. |