Kind countrymen, how fell ye out?
I left you all quiet and still;
But things are now brought so about,
You nothing but plunder and kill;
Some doe seem seemingly holy,
And would be reformers of men,
But wisdom doth laugh at their folly,
And sayes they’ll be children agen,
Here’s a health, etc.
But woe to the figure of One!
King Solomon telleth us so;
But he shall be wronged by none
That hath two strings to his bow.
How I love this figure of Two
Among all the figures that be,
I’ll make it appear unto you
If that you will listen to me.
Here’s a health, etc.
Observe when the weather is cold
I wear a cap on my head,
But wish, if I may be so bold,
The figure of Two in my bed.
Two in my bed I do crave,
And that is myself and my mate;
But pray do not think I would have
Two large great hornes on my pate.
Here’s a health, etc.
Since Nature hath given two hands,
But when they are foul I might scorn them;
Yet people thus much understands,
Two fine white gloves will adorn them.
Two feet for to bear up my body,
No more had the knight of the sun;
But people would think me a noddy
If two shoes I would not put on.
Here’s a health, etc.
The figure of Two is a thing
That we cannot well live without,
No more than without a good king,
Though we be never so stout;
And thus we may well understand,
If ever our troubles should cease,
Two needful things in a land
Is a king and a justice of peace.
Here’s a health, etc.
And now for to draw to an end,
I wish a good happy conclusion,
The State would so much stand our friend,
To end this unhappy confusion;
The which might be done in a trice,
In giving of Cæsar his due;
If we were so honest and wise
As to think of the figure of Two.
Here’s a health, etc.
If any desire to know,
This riddle I now will unfold,
It is a man wrapped in woe,
Whose father is wrapped in mould:
So now to conclude my song,
I mention him so much the rather
Because he hath suffer’d some wrong,
And bears up the name of his father.
Here’s a health, etc.
THE REFORMATION.
Written in the year 1652, by Samuel Butler. From his Posthumous Works.
Tell me not of Lords and laws,
Rules or reformation;
All that’s done not worth two straws
To the welfare of the nation;
If men in power do rant it still,
And give no reason but their will
For all their domination;
Or if they do an act that’s just,
’Tis not because they would, but must,
To gratify some party’s lust.