Yet the ashes may happily serve
To cure the scab of the nation, 65
Whene'er 't has an itch to swerve
To Rebellion by innovation.
A Lanthorn here is to be bought,
The like was scarce ever gotten,
For many plots it has found out 70
Before they ever were thought on.
Says old Simon, &c.
Will you buy the RUMP'S great saddle,
With which it jocky'd the nation?
And here is the bitt, and the bridle, 75
And curb of Dissimulation:
And here's the trunk-hose of the RUMP,
And their fair dissembling cloak,
And a Presbyterian jump,
With an Independent smock. 80
Says old Simon, &c.
Will you buy a Conscience oft turn'd,
Which serv'd the high-court of justice,
And stretch'd until England it mourn'd:
But Hell will buy that if the worst is. 85
Here's Joan Cromwell's kitching-stuff tub,[841]
Wherein is the fat of the Rumpers,
With which old Noll's horns she did rub,
When he was got drunk with false bumpers.
Says old Simon, &c. 90
Here's the purse of the public faith;
Here's the model of the Sequestration,
When the old wives upon their good troth,
Lent thimbles to ruine the nation.[842]
Here's Dick Cromwell's Protectorship, 95
And here are Lambert's commissions,
And here is Hugh Peters his scrip
Cramm'd with the tumultuous Petitions
Says old Simon, &c.
And here are old Noll's brewing vessels,[843] 100
And here are his dray, and his slings;
Here are Hewson's awl, and his bristles;[843]
With diverse other odd things:
And what is the price doth belong
To all these matters before ye? 105
I'll sell them all for an old song,
And so I do end my story.
Says old Simon, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[840] Alluding probably to Major-General Harrison a butcher's son, who assisted Cromwell in turning out the long parliament, April 20, 1653.
[841] Ver. 86. 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 houshold, &c. See Gent. Mag. for March, 1788, p. 242.
[842] Ver. 94. See Grey's Hudibras, pt. i. cant. 2, ver. 570, &c.
[843] V. 100, 102. Cromwell had in his younger years followed the brewing trade at Huntingdon. Col. Hewson is said to have been originally a cobler.