Merry Drollery, Complete (1670)/The Power of the Sword
For other versions of this work, see Law lies a Bleeding.
The Power of the Sword.
Lay by your pleading, Law lies a bleeding,
Burn all your Studies down, & throw away your reading;
Small power the Word has, & can afford us
Not halfe so many Priviledges as the Sword has:
It fosters your masters, it plaisters disasters,
And makes your servants, quickly greater than their Masters;
It venters, it enters, it circles, it centers,
And makes a Prentice free in spight of his Indentures.
Burn all your Studies down, & throw away your reading;
Small power the Word has, & can afford us
Not halfe so many Priviledges as the Sword has:
It fosters your masters, it plaisters disasters,
And makes your servants, quickly greater than their Masters;
It venters, it enters, it circles, it centers,
And makes a Prentice free in spight of his Indentures.
This takes off tall things, and sets up small things,
This masters Money, though Money masters all things;
’Tis not in season to talk of Reason,
Or call it legal, when the Sword will have it treason;
It conquers the Crown too, the Furs & the Gown too;
This set up a Presbyter, and this pull’d him down too;
This subtill Deceiver turn’d Bonnet to Beaver,
Down drops a Bishop, and up starts a Weaver.
This masters Money, though Money masters all things;
’Tis not in season to talk of Reason,
Or call it legal, when the Sword will have it treason;
It conquers the Crown too, the Furs & the Gown too;
This set up a Presbyter, and this pull’d him down too;
This subtill Deceiver turn’d Bonnet to Beaver,
Down drops a Bishop, and up starts a Weaver.
This fits a lay-man to preach and to pray man,
’Tis this can make a Lord of him that was a dray-man,
Forth from the dull pit of Follies full pit;
This brought an Hebrew Ironmonger to the Pulpit,
Such pittiful things be more happier then Kings be;
This got the Herauldry of Thimblebee & Slingsbee;
No Gospel can guide it, no Law can decide it,
In Church or State untill the Sword hath sanctifi’d it.
’Tis this can make a Lord of him that was a dray-man,
Forth from the dull pit of Follies full pit;
This brought an Hebrew Ironmonger to the Pulpit,
Such pittiful things be more happier then Kings be;
This got the Herauldry of Thimblebee & Slingsbee;
No Gospel can guide it, no Law can decide it,
In Church or State untill the Sword hath sanctifi’d it.
Down goes the Law-tricks, for from that Matrix
Sprung holy Hewsons power, and tumbled down St. Patricks;
The sword prevails so highly in Wales too,
Shinkin ap Powel cries, and swears Cuts-plutter-nails, too;
In Scotland this Waster did make such disaster,
They sent their money back for which they sold their Master;
It batter’d so their Dunkirk, and did so the Don firke
That he is fled, and swears, the devil is in Dunkirke.
Sprung holy Hewsons power, and tumbled down St. Patricks;
The sword prevails so highly in Wales too,
Shinkin ap Powel cries, and swears Cuts-plutter-nails, too;
In Scotland this Waster did make such disaster,
They sent their money back for which they sold their Master;
It batter’d so their Dunkirk, and did so the Don firke
That he is fled, and swears, the devil is in Dunkirke.
He that can tower o’er him that is lower,
would be but thought a fool to put away his power.
Take books and rent ’um, who would invent ’um,
When as the Sword replies, negatur argumentum?
Your grand Colledge Butlers must stoop to your sutlers,
There’s not a Library living like the cutlers;
The bloud that is spilt, sir, hath gaind all the guilt, sir,
Thus have you seen me run the Sword up to the hilts Sir.
would be but thought a fool to put away his power.
Take books and rent ’um, who would invent ’um,
When as the Sword replies, negatur argumentum?
Your grand Colledge Butlers must stoop to your sutlers,
There’s not a Library living like the cutlers;
The bloud that is spilt, sir, hath gaind all the guilt, sir,
Thus have you seen me run the Sword up to the hilts Sir.