With Squire and weapons to attack 'em ; Makes you thus lavish of your blood, ghost? 495 ♦ What rage, O Citizens! what fury] Butler certainly had these lines of Lucan in view. Pharsal. 1-8. Quis furor, O cives, quæ tanta licentia ferri, And Virgil, Æn. ii. 42. O miseri, quæ tanta insania, cives? Perhaps too he recollected the seventh epode of Horace. Aptantur enses conditi? 5 What œstrum, what phrenetic mood] Olspog is not only a Greek word for madness, but signifies also a gad-bee, or horse-fly, that torments cattle in the summer, and makes them run about as if they were mad. While the proud Vies your trophies boast, And, unreveng'd, walks ghost] Vies, or Devizes, in Wiltshire. This passage alludes to the defeat given by Wilmot to the forces under Sir William Waller, near that place, July 13, 1643. After the battle Sir William was entirely neglected by his party, Clarendon calls it the battle of Roundway-down. See vol. ii. p. 224. Some in joke call it Runaway-down. Others suppose the hiatus, in the second line, ought to be supplied by the name Hampden, who was killed in Chalgrove-field in Oxfordshire, about the time of VOL. I. I What towns, what garrisons might you, Shall saints in civil bloodshed wallow 500 Of saints, and let the cause lie fallow ? 510 Waller's defeat, in the neighbourhood of the Devizes.-The heathen poets have feigned, that the ghosts of the slain could not enter Elysium, till their deaths were revenged. 7 In vain, untriumphable fray ?] The Romans never granted a triumph to the conqueror in a civil war. • Shall saints in civil bloodshed wallow Of saints, and let the cause lie fallow?] The support of the discipline, or ecclesiastical regimen by presbyters was called The Cause, as if no other cause was comparable to it. See Hooker's Eccles. Pol. preface. The solemn league and covenant] Mr. Robert Gordon, in his History of the illustrious family of Gordon, vol. ii. p. 197. comparés the solemn league and covenant with the holy league in France: he says, they were as like as one egg to another, the one was nursed by the Jesuits, the other by the Scots presbyterians. For as we make war for the king Against himself,] "To secure the king's person from danger," says Lord Clarendon, " was an expression they were not ashamed Some will not stick to swear we do For God, and for religion too; For if bear-baiting we allow, What good can reformation do?" 515 66 The blood and treasure that's laid out 520 always to use, when there was no danger that threatened, but " what themselves contrived and designed against him. They not only declared that they fought for the king, but that the raising " and maintaining soldiers for their own army, would be an accept"able service for the king, parliament, and kingdom.” One Blake, in the king's army, gave intelligence to the enemy in what part of the army the king fought, that they might direct their bullets accordingly. 2 For if bear-baiting we allow, What good can reformation do?] Hewson is said, by Mr. Hume, to have gone, in the fervor of his zeal against bear-baiting, and killed all the bears which he could find in the city. But we are told by the author of the Mystery of the good old Cause, a pamphlet published soon after these animals were destroyed, that they were killed by Colonel Pride. Granger's Biographical History, vol. iii. p. 75. Are these the fruits o' th' protestation,] The protestation was framed, and taken in the house of commons, May 3, 1641; and immediately printed, and dispersed over the nation. The design of it was to alarm the people with fears and apprehensions both for their civil and religious liberties; as if the protestant religion were in danger, and the privileges of parliament trampled upon. The king was deemed to have acted unconstitutionally the day before, by taking notice of the bill of attainder against the earl of Strafford, then depending in the house of lords. • The prototype of reformation,] The protestation was the first attempt towards a national combination against the establishment, and was harbinger to the covenant. See Nalson's Collections, vol. i. p. ult. and Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, vol. i. 22—6. Which all the saints, and some, since martyrs, Wore in their hats like wedding-garters, When 'twas resolved by their house, Six members' quarrel to espouse ?7 Did they for this draw down the rabble, 525 Join throats to cry the bishops down? 530 5 Set up their throats with hideous shout. martyrs,] Those that were killed in the war. • Wore in their hats like wedding-garters,] The protestors or petitioners, when they came tumultuously to the parliament-house, Dec. 27, 1641, stuck pieces of paper in their hats, which were to pass for their protestation. ▾ Six members' quarrel to espouse?] Charles I. ordered the following members, lord Kimbolton, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hollis, Mr. Hampden, sir Arthur Haselrig, and Mr. Stroud, to be prosecuted, for plotting with the Scots, and stirring up sedition. The commons voted against their arrest, and the king went to the house with his guards, in order to seize them; but they had received intelligence of the design, and made their escape. This was one of the first acts of open violence which preceded the civil wars. The king took this measure chiefly by the advice of lord Digby. 8 Did they for this draw down the rabble, With zeal, and noises formidable ;] The cry of the rabble was, as mentioned in the following lines, for reformation in church and state-no bishops-no evil counsellors, &c. See the protestation in Rapin's History. 9 Who having round begirt the palace, As once a month they do the gallows,] The executions at Tyburn were generally once a month. When tinkers bawl'd aloud, to settle Of pudding-pies and ginger-bread: And some for brooms, old boots, and shoes, A gospel-preaching-ministry: And some for old suits, coats, or cloak, A strange harmonious inclination 535 540 545 550 And is this all? is this the end 555 To which these carr'ings-on did tend? 500 1 Church-discipline, for patching kettle.] For, that is, instead of; as also in v. 547 and 551. 2 Did saints for this bring in their plate,] Zealous persons, on both |