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“But, oh! take heed lest he do eat The Rump all at one dinner!” |
And Aulicus, we see, accuses him of concealing his bravery in a hayrick. It is always curious and useful to confer the writers of intemperate times one with another. Lord Clarendon, whose great mind was incapable of descending to scurrility, gives a very different character to this pot-valiant and hayrick runaway; for he says, “It cannot be denied but Sir William Brereton, and the other gentlemen of that party, albeit their educations and course of life had been very different from their present engagements, and for the most part very unpromising in matters of war, and therefore were too much contemned enemies, executed their commands with notable sobriety and indefatigable industry (virtues not so well practised in the King’s quarters), insomuch as the best soldiers who encountered with them had no cause to despise them.”—Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 147.
“The Scotch Dove” seems never to have recovered from this metamorphosis, but ever after, among the newsmen, was known to be only a Widgeon. His character is not very high in “The Great Assizes.”
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“The innocent Scotch Dove did then advance, Full sober in his wit and countenance: And, though his book contain’d not mickle scence, Yet his endictment shew’d no great offence. Great wits to perils great, themselves expose Oft-times; but the Scotch Dove was none of those. In many words he little matter drest, And did laconick brevity detest. But while his readers did expect some Newes, They found a Sermon—” |
The Scotch Dove desires to meet the classical Aulicus in the duel of the pen:—
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——————“to turn me loose, A Scottish Dove against a Roman Goose.” |
“The Scotch Dove” is condemned “to cross the seas, or to repasse the Tweede.” They all envy him his “easy mulet,” but he wofully exclaims at the hard sentence,
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“For if they knew that home as well as he, They’d rather die than there imprison’d be!” |