Whilst divines and statesmen wrangle,
Let the Rump-ridden nation bite on’t;
There are none but we
That are sure to go free,
For the soldier’s still in the right on’t.
Then away, etc.
If our masters won’t supply us
With money, food, and clothing,
Let the State look to’t,
We’ll find one that will do’t,
Let him live—we will not damn.
Then away, etc.
SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON,
ANGLICE MERCURIUS POETICUS.
“The following ballad,” says Mr Wright in the Political Ballads of the Commonwealth, published for the Percy Society, “was written on the occasion of the overthrow of the Rump by Monck. He arrived in London on the third of February, and professed himself a determined supporter of the party then uppermost. On the ninth and tenth he executed their orders against the city; but suddenly on the eleventh he joined the city and the Presbyterian party, and demanded the readmission of the members who were secluded formerly from the Long Parliament. This measure put an end to the reign of the Rump, and immediately afterwards the Parliament dissolved itself, and a new one was called.—(February 28th, 1659.)”—All the notes to this Ballad are from the pen of Mr Wright.
To the tune of “The Old Courtier of the Queen’s,” etc.
News! news! here’s the occurrences and a new Mercurius,
A dialogue betwixt Haselrigg the baffled and Arthur the furious;
With Ireton’s [50] readings upon legitimate and spurious,
Proving that a saint may be the son of a whore, for the satisfaction of the curious.
From a Rump insatiate as the sea,
Libera nos, Domine.
Here’s the true reason of the citie’s infatuation,
Ireton has made it drunk with the cup of abomination;
That is, the cup of the whore, after the Geneva Interpretation,
Which with the juyce of Titchburn’s grapes [51] must needs cause intoxication.
From a Rump, etc.
Here’s the Whipper whipt by a friend to George, that whipp’d Jack, [52] that whipp’d the breech,
That whipp’d the nation as long as it could stand over it—after which
It was itself re-jerk’d by the sage author of this speech:
“Methinks a Rump should go as well with a Scotch spur as with a switch.”
From a Rump, etc.
This Rump hath many a rotten and unruly member;
“Give the generall the oath!” cries one (but his conscience being a little tender);
“I’ll abjure you with a pestilence!” quoth George, “and make you remember
The ’leaventh of February [53] longer than the fifth of November!”
From a Rump, etc.
With that, Monk leaves (in Rump assembled) the three estates,
But oh! how the citizens hugg’d him for breaking down their gates,
For tearing up their posts and chaynes, and for clapping up their mates [54]
(When they saw that he brought them plasters for their broken pates).
From a Rump, etc.