The zed the common'st that was there

Was vrom a tub or a wicker chair,

They call'd it stumpere.*

Es hur'd 'um pray, and

every word

As the wor sick they cri'd "O Lord!"

And thoo ston still agen;

And vor my life escould not know
Whun they begun or had ado,

But when they zed, Amen.

They have a new word, 'tis not preach,
Zdo think zome o'me did call it teach,
A trick of their devizing;

And there zo good a nap sdid vet,
Till 'twas a doo that's past zun-zet,
As if 'twor but zun-rising.

At night zo zoon's chwar into bed,
Sdid my prayers without book read,
My Creed and Pater-noster;
Methink zet all their prayers to thick,
And they do goo no more a leek,
Then an apple's like an oyster.

Chad nead to watch zo well as pray, Whun chave to do with zuch as they,

Or else es may go zeck;

They need not bid a monthy vast,
Vor if zoo be these times to last

Twool come to zeav'n a weak.

* Extempore.

Es waited there a huges time,

And brib'd thick men to know my crime,
That esmed make my peace;

At last esvown my purse was vat,
And if chwould be reform'd of that,
They wood give me a release.

Esgid 'um bond voor neenscore pown,
Bezides what chad a paid 'um down,
And thoo they made me swear;
Whun chad a reckon'd what my cost are,
Es swear'd chood ene zit down aloster.
Vor by my troth chawr weary.

Thoo when scome home esbote some beass,
And chowr in hope we should ha' peace,
Case here's no cavaliers;

But now they zed's a new quandary,
Tween Pendents and the Presbytary,*

Cham agast they'l go by the ears.

Esbore in hon 'twould never last,

The mittees did get wealth zo vast,

And gentlemen undoo;

Uds wonderkins! toold make one mad!

That three or four livings had

Now can't tell whare to goo.

* Alluding to the dissensions and rivalry between the two great religious parties after the conclusion of the war, which ended in the triumph of the Independents over the Presbyterians, and the elevation of Cromwell.

Cha zeed the time when escood gee
My dater more then zix of the,

But now by bribes and stortions
Zome at our wedden ha bestow'd

In gloves more then avore this wood
A made three daters portions.

One o'm ow'd me three hundred pown;
Es zend for zome, he paid it down,

But within three daies ater

Ech had a ticket to restore

The same agen and six times more;
Isn't this a couzning matter?

Whun chood not do't, smot to black-rod,
A place was ne'r a made by God,

And there chowre vain to lye

Till chad a gidd'n up his bon,

And paid a hundred more in hon,
And thoo smed come awy.

Nay now they have a good hon made,
What if the Scots should play the jade,

And keep awy our king ?*

War they not mad in all these dangers,
To go and trust the king with strangers?

Was ever such a thing?

*The king delivered himself to the Scots on the 5th of May 1646, and was given up by them to the parliament in the beginning of the year following, arriving at Holdenby about the middle of February.

We ha' nor scrip nor scrole to show
Whether it be our king or no,

And if they should deny an,
They'l make us vight vor'n once more,
As well's agenst'n heretovore,-
How can we else come by 'n?

We had been better paid 'um down
Their vorty hundred thousand pown,*
And zo a zet 'um gwine;

Vor cham agast avore the goo,

The'l have our grown and mony too,

Cham sore afeard of mine!

Another trick they do devize,

The vive and twonty part and size ;†
And there at every meeting

We pay vor wives and childrens pole,
More then they'l ever yield us whole,—
"Tis abomination cheating!

* The Scots, who had been called into England, demanded four hundred thousand pounds, for arrears, &c. due to them from the Parliament.

†The excise, of which the idea was borrowed from the financial system of the Dutch, was one of the principal taxes levied by the Long Parliament, and was first introduced by Pym, in the year 1643. It was much cried against by the opponents of the governing powers.

From this damn'd Dutch device."

Mercurius Pragmaticus, No. 2, Sept. 21-28, 1647.

We can nor eat, nor drink, nor lye
We our own wives by and by,

We pay to knaves that couzen;
My dame and I ten children made,
But now we do gee off the trade,

Vor fear should be a douzen.

Then lets to clubs agen and vight;
Or let's take it all out right;

Vor thus they mean to sare:—
All thick be right they'l strip and use,
And deal with them as bad as Jews,
All custen voke, beware !

A PANEGYRICK,

FAITHFULLY REPRESENTING THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE PARLIAMENT AT WESTMINSTER SINCE THEIR FIRST SESSIONS TO THIS PRESENT, WHEREIN THEIR WONDERFULL ACTS ARE TRULY DECLARED AND WHAT IS FURTHER BY THEM TO BE EXPECTED.

[London, June 5, 1647.]

THIS ballad is preserved among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, Folio Broadsides, vol. 5. It was written in the heat of the dissensions between the army and the parliament, or between the Independents and the Presbyterians, immediately after the house had voted that the army should be disbanded, and after Cromwell had withdrawn to the latter body.