Could wish that huntsmen ruled the Common weal:
And that the King's hounds were the only spies,
For they would tell truth! as the others, lies.
He wisheth beasts were men, as men resemble
Beasts: for surely they would not dissemble!
But would tell where the fault lies, and hunt home
The subtle Fox, either to Spain or Rome.

A Puritan is he, that speaks his mind
In Parliament: not looking once behind
To others' danger; nor yet sideways leaning
To promised honour, his direct true meaning.
But for the Laws and Truth doth firmly stand:
By which, he knows, Kings only do command;
And Tyrants otherwise. He crosseth not
This man, because a Courtier or a Scot;
Or that, because a Favourite, or soe:
But if the State's friend, none can be his foe!
But if the State's foe (be he what he will,

Illustrious, wise, great, learned), he counts him ill.
He neither sides with that man nor with this,
But gives his voice just as the reason is,
And yet, if Policy would work a fraction
To cross Religion by a foreign faction
Pretending public good; he'll join with those
Who dare speak Truth, not only under the rose,
But though the White Rose and the Red do hear!
And though the pricking Thistle too be there!
Yea, though the stars,* the moon,* the sun,*

look on,

And cast, through clouds, oblique aspects upon
His clear and free intentions; he's as bold
And confident as the bright marigold! +
That flatterer, that favourite of the sun,
Who doth the self-same course observe and run;
Not caring though all flowers else wax sear,
So he, the golden livery may wear !
But our free, generous, and noble spirit
Doth from his ancient English stock, inherit
Such native worth and liberty of mind,
As will omit no slavery of his kind;
Yet he is ready to obey wheresoe'er

[* The Nobility, Prince CHARLES, and King JAMES.]

[BUCKINGHAM.]

236 THE INTERPRETER.

THE PURITAN. [1622.

[*Mushrooms.]

He may not prejudice the Truth by fear,
Nor faintly seem to shrink, withdraw, give way,
Whilst other mushrumpes do the State betray.
He'll not a traitor, be unto the King,
Nor to the Laws (for that's another thing
Men dream not of, who think they no way can
Be traitors unto many, for one man),
But his chief error is to think that none
Can be a traitor, till Law calls him one;
And that the Law is what the State decrees
In Parliament: by which, whilst that he sees
His actions and intentions justified,
He counts himself a martyr glorified,
If, in this cause, he suffers; and contemns
All dangers in his way. Nay, he condemns
All such as traitors be to Church and State,
Who for the love of one, all others hate!
And for particular ends and private aims,
Forsake their Country! and their conscience maim!
His Character abridged, if you would have,

HE'S ONE, THAT WOULD A SUBJECT BE, NO SLAVE!

PROTESTANT is such an other thing

As makes, within his heart, God of the
King;

And (as if he did, with his Crown inherit
A never-erring and infallible spirit),
Labours to blow him up by praise of wit,
And by false flatteries cosen him of it.

A Protestant is one that shakes his head

And pities much the Palsgrave was misled
To meddle with Bohemia, and incense

The Spanish wrath; 'gainst which, there is no fence!
That his revenues in the Palz again

Were well restored, he wishes; so that Spain

Would take the honours of that house, and give
MENTZ his demands, letting the Palsgrave live:
For such a favour as his lands and life,

Not one, except the father of his wife

(That King of Peace and Love!) dares boldly crave
But what is it he may despair to have

By means of th' English and the Scottish Saint,
Who, at their pupils' suit, doth still acquaint
The Spanish Patron, how, the first of May,
PHILIP and JAMES make one Holy Day;
What therefore's given to one, the other must
Be shares in; for JAMES is surnamed "Just."
And so, this year, by Holy Church's count,

238 THE INTERPRETER. THE PROTESTANT. [1622.

The Calendar reformed hath singled out,
These two most sacred Saints to wait upon
Our Saviour's feast of Resurrection,

Which by the English heathen computation
Meets with May Day among the Catholic nation;
And may be such a day, as that, for goodness,

Which some called "Ill May Day" from people's woodness,
A day of feasting, and a day of pleasure,

A day of marriage, and withal of treasure,

A day of Catholic unity and love

Which may a kind of resurrection move
In our State, Union; almost now forgot,

Being buried both by th'English and the Scot.
Spain strikes betwixt, and like a Lord commands,
They join their Laws together with their Lands:
And join they will! but in despite of Spain,
Making his Holy Day of hope but vain..

A Protestant is he, that fain would take
Occasion from the East or West, to shake
Our League with the United Provinces:
To which end, he hath many fair pretences.
Our Honour first, for in the Greenland, they,
And the East Indies, beat our ships away.
Our Profit likewise, for in both those places
We do great loss sustain, besides disgraces:
And in the Narrow Seas, where we are masters;
They will presume to be our herring-tasters!
But we should have white herrings wondrous plenty,
If they would give us two of every twenty;

Or stay our idle leisure, till that none

Remained for them or us, but all were gone.
And if they will not thus, our humours serve,

"That we," saith he, "should leave them, they deserve!" A herring cob, we see, will make him quarrel;

What would the man do, think you! for a barrel ?
Well could I wish these things were all amended;
But greater business, now, is to be 'tended.
Our Lives, Religions, Liberties, and Lands
Upon this nice and tickle quarrel stand;
And we must for a fitter time attend,
Else Spain will soon this controversy end!

A Protestant is he, that, by degrees,
Climbs every Office; knows the proper fees
They give and take, at entrance of the Place,
And at what rate again, they vent that grace;
Knows in how many years a man may gather
Enough to make himself a reverend father,
Or from the lowest civil step arise.

To sit with honour in the starry skies:
For he hath gone that Progress, step by step,
As snails creep up where safely none can leap;
For snails do leave behind their silver slime,
And guild the way for falling as they climb.
A Protestant is he that with the stream
Still swims, and wisely shuns every extreme;
Loves not in point of faith to be precise;
But to believe as Kings do, counts it wise:
If CONSTANTINE the Great will christened be;
This will the white robe wear as well he !
And in the hallowed fountain plunge amain
His naked body, as if every stain

Were now washed off, and his inflamèd zeal
Thirsted these waters, which soul's sin doth heal.
Again, if JULIAN will renounce his faith;
This man will say, just as his Sovereign saith.
If he intend Religion to betray,

And yet will walk a close and covert way,
Corrupting men by office, honour, bounty,
You shall find this man will deserve a County;
By double dealing and by broking so,

That none shall think him ere they find him too
Apostated: for no way so doth work

To make a man an Atheist, Jew, or Turk,
As do corrupted manners, which let in

A deluge of impiety and sin.

These, backed by favour and preferment, may

Have power to make all error open way;

And every man will censure opposition,

When gilden flattery kills without suspicion.

This poisoned vial then was poured in

When, first, the Church got means to maintain sin; And now the means withdrawn or misemployed,