The designs of the various factions were thus summed up:—
“Sir Tom would hang the Tory,
And let the Whig go free:
Sir Bob would have a Commonwealth
And cry down Monarchy.”
The Tories retaliated upon their antagonists with interest, though they feared the zealots not a little, as the following ballad illustrates:—
“What! Still ye Whigs uneasie!
Will nothing cool your brain,
Unless Great Charles, to please ye,
Will let ye drive his Wain?
That Peer-less House of Commons,
So zealous for the Lord,
Meant (piously) with some on’s
To flesh the Godly sword.”
(A Tory in a Whig’s Coat.)
One of the most popular “counter-blasts” to the Whig pretensions is embodied in the following parody, which enjoyed considerable favour, though not equal to Andrew Marvell’s diatribes “on the other side:”—
“A LITANY FROM GENEVA,
IN ANSWER TO A LITANY FROM ST. OMER.
“From the force and the fire of th’ Insolent Rabble
That would hurl the Government into a Babel,
And from the nice fare of the Mouse-starver’s table,
Libera nos Domine.
“From a surfeit occasion’d by Protestant feasts
From Sedition for sauce, and Republicks for guests,
With Treason for Grace-cup, or Faction at least,
Libera nos.