HUDI BRAS.

IN THREE PART S.

Then bore them, like the devil's dam,
Whofe fon and husband are the fame ;
And yet no natural tie of blood,
Nor intereft for the common good,
Could, when their profits interfer'd,
Get quarter for each other's beard:

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For when they thriv'd they never fadg'd, But only by the ears engag'd;

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Like dogs that fnarl about a bone,

And play together when they 've none;

As by their trueft characters,

Their conftant actions, plainly' appears.

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Rebellion now began, for lack
Of zeal and plunder, to grow flack;
The Caufe and Covenant to leffen,
And Providence to be out of feafon :
For now there was no more to purchase

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For when, dike brethren, and like friends, 55
They came to fhare their dividends,
And every partner to poffefs

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This Canto is entirely independent of the adventures of Hudibras and Ralpho: neither of our heroes make their appearance; other characters are introduced, and a new vein of fatire is exhibited. The poet fteps out of his road, and skips from the time wherein these adventures happened to Cromwell's death, and from thence to the diffolution of the Rump Parliament. This conduct is allowable in a fatirift, whofe privilege it is to ramble wherever he pleafes, and to ftigmatize vice, factions and rebellion, where and whenever he meets with them. He is not tied down to the observance of unity and action, time, or place, though he has hitherto had a regard to fuch decorums: but now, and here only, he claims the privilege of a fatirist, and VOL. II.

His church and state joint-purchases,
In which the ableft Saint, and beft,
Was nam'd in trust by all the rest
To pay their inoney, and, instead
Of every Brother, país the deed,
He straight converted all his gifts
To pious frauds and holy fhifts.
And fettled all the other shares
Upon his outward man and 's heirs ;
Held all they claim'd as forfeit lands
Deliver'd up into his hands,

deviates from order, time, and uniformity, and deferts his principal actors: he purposely fends them out of the way, that we may attend to a lively reprefentation of the principles and politics of Prefbyterians, Independents, and Republicans, upon the dawning of the Restoration. He fets before us a full view of the treachery and underminings of each faction; and fure it is with pleafure we see the fears and commotions they were in upon the happy declenfion of their tyrannical power and government. All thefe occurrences are fully and faithfully related in this Canto, and the feveral facts are warranted by history. 3 [M]

And pass'd upon his confcience
By pre-entail of Providence ;
Impeach'd the reft for Reprobates,
That had no titles to eftates,
But by their fpiritual attaints
Degraded from the right of Saints.
This being reveal'd, they now begun
With law and confcience to fall on,
And laid about as hot and brain-fick
As th' Utter barrister of Swanfwick;
Engag'd with money-bags, as bold
As men with fand-bags did of old,
That brought the lawyers in more fees
Than all unfanctify'd Trustees;
Till he who had no more to thow
I' th' caufe, receiv'd the overthrow;
Or, both fides having had the worst,
They parted as they met at first.
Poor Prefbyter was now reduc'd,
Secluded, and cashier'd, and chous'd!
Turn'd out, and excommunicate
From all affairs of Church and State,
Reform'd t'a reformado Saint,
And glad to turn itinerant,

To troll and teach from town to town,
And thofe he had taught up teach down,
And make thofe ufes ferve again
Against the new enlighten'd men,
As fit as when at first they were
Reveal'd against the Cavalier;
Damn Anabaptift and Fanatic
As pat as Popish and Prelatic;
And with as little variation,

To ferve for any fect i' th' nation.
The Good old Caufe, which fome believe
To be the devil that tempted Eve
With knowledge, and does still invite
The world to mifchief with New Light,
Had store of money in her purse,
When he took her for better or worse;
But now was grown deform'd and poor,
And fit to be turn'd out of dooor.

The Independents (whofe first station
Was in the rear of Reformation,
A mongrel kind of Church-dragoons,

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ΠΙΟ

That ferv'd for horfe and foot at once,

Ver.78.] W. Prynne, a voluminous writer. Ver. 118.] The officers and foldiers among the Independents got into pulpits, and preached and praved as well as fought. Oliver Cromwell was fam'd for a preacher, and has a fermon * in print, intituled, Cromwell's Learned, Devout, and Confcientious Exercise, beld at Sir Peter Temple's in Lincoln's Inn-ficids, up Rom. xii. 1. in which are the following flowers of rhetoric: "Dearly beloved "brethren and fifters, it is true, this text is a "malignant one; the wicked and ungodly have

"abused it very much; but, thanks be to God "it was to their own ruin.

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"But now that I spoke of kings, the question "is, Whether by the bigher powers, are meant kings or commoners? Truly, beloved, it is a very great question among thote that are "learned: for may not every one that can read obierve, that Paul fpeaks in the plural number, bigber powers? Now had he meant fubjection to a king, he would have faid, "Let every foul "be subject to the bigber power," if he had meant one man; but by this you fee he meant more than one: he bid us "be fubject to the higher povers," that is, the Council of State, the House of Commons, and the Army." Ib. p. 3.

"

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This, however, is now well known to be an imposture. N.

When in the Humble Petition there was inferted an article againit public preachers being members of Parliament, Oliver Cromwell excepted against it exprefsly; "Because he (he faid) was

one, and divers officers of the army, by whom "much good had been done-and therefore de"fired they would explain their article." (Heath's "Chronicle, p. 408.)

Ib. Sir Roger L'Eftrange obferves (Reflection upon Poggius's Fable of the Husband, Wife, and Ghoftly Fa ber, part I. fab. 357) upon the pretended faints of thofe times, "That they did not fet one "step, in the whole tract of this iniquity, with"out feeking the Lord first, and going up to en"quire of the Lord, according to the cant of "thofe days; which was no other than to make "God the author of fin, and to impute the black"eft practices of hell to the infpiration of the "Holy Ghoft."

It was with this pretext of feeking the Lord in prayer, that Cromwell, Ireton, Harrifon, and others of the Regicides, cajoled General Fairfax, who was determined to rescue the King from execution, giving orders to have it speedily done; and, when they had notice that it was over, perfuaded the General that this was a full return of prayer; and, God having fo manifested his pleasure, they ought to acquietce in it. (Perenchief's Life of King Charles 1.)

Agreed in nothing, but, t'abolish, Subvert, extirpate, and demolish:

For knaves and fools being near of kin,
As Dutch boors are t' a footerkin,
Both parties join'd to do their best
To damn the public interest,
And herded only in confults,
To put by one another's bolts:
T'out-cant the Babylonian labourers,
At all their dialects of jabberers,
And tug at both ends of the faw,
To tear down government and law.
For as two cheats, that play one game,
Are both defeated of their aim;
So thofe who play a game of state,
49 And only cavil in debate,

Although there's nothing loft nor won,
The public bufinefs is undone;
Which still the longer 'tis in doing,
Becomes the furer way to ruin.

This when the Royalifts perceiv'd,
(Who to their faith as firmly cleav'd
And own'd the right they had paid down
So dearly for, the Church and Crown) ·
They' united constanter, and fided
The more, the more their foes divided;
For though out-number'd, overthrown,
And by the fate of war run down,
Their duty never was defeated,

Nor from their oaths and faith retreated;
For loyalty is still the fame,
Whether it win or lofe the game;
True as the dial to the fun,
Although it be not shin'd upon.
But when these Brethren in evil,
Their adverfaries, and the devil,
Began once more to fhew them play,
And hopes, at least, to have a day,
They rally'd in parades of woods,
And unfrequented folitudes;
Conven'd at midnight in outhouses,
T'appoint new-rifing endezvoufes,
And, with a pertinacy' unmatch'd,
For new recruits of danger watch'd.

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Of former try'd experiments,

Nor wounds, could terrify, nor mangling, To leave off loyalty and dangling, Nor Death (with all his bones) affright From venturing to maintain the right, From taking life and fortune down 'Gainft all together, for the Crown; 155 But kept the title of their caufe From forfeiture, like claims in laws; And prov'd no profperous ufurpation Can ever fettle on the nation; Until, in fpite of force and treason, 160 They put their loyalty in poffeffion; And, by their conftancy and faith, Destroy'd the mighty men of Gath, Tofs'd in a furious hurricane, Did Oliver give up his reign,

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Ver. 201, 202.] The brave fpirit of loyalty was not to be fuppreffed by the most barbarous and inhuman ufage. There are feveral remark. 170 able inftances upon record; as that of the gal lant Marquis of Montrofe, the loyal Mr. Gerrard, and Mr. Vowel, in 1654; of Mr. Penruddock, Grove, and others, who fuffered for their loyalty at Exeter, 1654-5; of Captain Reynolds, 175 who had been of the King's party, and, when he was going to be turned off the ladder, cried, God blefs King Charles; Vive le Roy; of Dalgelly, one of Montrofe's party, who being fentenced to be beheaded, and being brought to the fcaffold, ran and kiffed it, and, without any speech or ceremony, laid down his head upon the block, and was beheaded; of the brave Sir Robert Spotifwood; of Mr. Courtney, and Mr. Port. man, who were committed to the Tower the be185 ginning of February 1657, for difperfing among the foldiers what were then called feditious books and pamphlets.

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See more

Nor ought the loyalty of the fix countries of North Wales to be paffed over in filence, who never addreffed or petitioned during the Ufurpation; nor the common foldier mentioned in the Oxford Diurnal, firit Week, p. 6. in the story of the Impertinent Sheriff, L'Etrange's Fables, part II, fab. 265. Mr. Butler, or Mr. Prynne, ipeaking of the gallant behaviour of the Loyalifts, fays, “Other nations would have ́ca"noniz'd for martyrs, and erected ftatues after

their death, to the memory of fome of our

Some for the Rump; and fome, more crafty, For Agitators, and the Safety:

Some for the Gofpel, and maffacres

Of fpiritual Affidavit-makers,
That fwore to any human regence
Oaths of fupremacy and allegiance;
Yea, though the ableft fwearing Saint,
That vouch'd the bulls o' th' Covenant:
Others for pulling down th' high-places
Of Synods and Provincial Claffes,
That us'd to make such hoftile inroads
Upon the Saints, like bloody Nimrods:
Some for fulfilling Prophecies,
And th' extirpation of th' Excife;
And fome against th' Egyptian bondage
Of Holy-days, and paying Poundage:
Some for the cutting down of Groves,
And rectifying bakers' Loaves;

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But found their Light and Gifts more wide
From fadging, than th' unfanctify'd;
While every individual Brother
Strove hand to fift against another,
And still the maddeft, and most crackt,
Were found the bufieft to transact;
For, though most hands dispatch apace
And make light work (the proverb fays)
Yet many different intellects
Are found t' have contrary effects;
And many heads t' obftruct intrigues,
As floweft infects have most legs.

Some were for fetting up a king,
But all the reft for no fuch thing,
Unless king Jefus: others tamper'd
For Fleetwood, Defborough, and Lambert:

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And fome for finding out expedients Against the flavery of Obedience: Some were for Gofpel-minifters,

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And fome for Red-coat feculars,

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The camifado of Surplices,

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Ver. 241, 242.] Dr. James Young obferves, "That two Jefuitical prognofticators, Lilly and Culpeper, were fo confident, anno 1652, of the "total fubverfion of the law and gospel-ministry, "that in their fcurrilous prognoftications they "predicted the downfall of both; and, in 1654, "they foretold that the law fhould be pulled "down to the ground,-the Great Charter, and "all our liberties, deftroyed, as not fuiting with "Englishmen, in their bleffed times; that the "crab-tree of the law fhould be pulled up by the "roots, and grow no more, there being no rea"fon now we should be governed by them."

Ver. 267, 268.] Harry Martyn, in his fpeech, in the debate Whether a King or no King, faid, "That if they must have a King, they had "rather have had the laft than any gentleman "in England. He found no fault in his person, "but office."

Ver. 269.] Alluding to the Fifth Monarchymen, who had formed a plot to dethrone Cromwell and fet up King Jefus.

man, and wore high fhoon-Ha! how the Lord "raifeth fome men, and depreffeth others."-Delborough married Cromwell's fifter, caft away his fpade, and took up a fword, and was made a colonel; was inftrumental in raifing Cromwell to the protectorship; upon which he was made one of his council, a General at Sea, and Majorgeneral of divers counties of the weft; and was one of Oliver's upper houfe. His annual income was 32361, 13s. and 4d.

Ibid. Lambert.] Lambard, In the first edition 1678. Altered 1684. He was one of the Rump Generals, and a principal oppofer of General Monk in the Restoration of King Charles II. The writer of the Narrative of the late Parliament fo called, 1657, p. 9. obferves, "That Major-gene"ral Lambert, as one of Oliver's council, had "1000l. per annum, which with his other places, "in all amounted to 6512l. 3s. 4d."

Ver. 272. Agitators.] In 1647, the Army made choice of a fet number of officers, which they called the General Council of Officers; and the common foldiers made choice of three or four of