362
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
And trusted with the Double keys
Of heaven, and their warehouses?
Who, when the Cause is in distress,
Can furnish out what sums they please, 860
That brooding lie in bankers' hands,
To be dispos'd at their commands;
And daily increase and multiply,
With doctrine, use, and usury:
Can fetch in parties, as in war 865
All other heads of cattle are,
From th' enemy of all religions,
As well as high and low conditions,
And share them, from blue ribbons down
To all blue aprons in the town;[1] 870
From ladies hurry'd in calleches,
With cornets at their footmen's breeches.[2]
The bawds as fat as mother Nab,
All guts and belly, like a crab.[3]
Our party's great, and better tied 875
With oaths, and trade, than any side;[4]
Has one considerable improvement,
To double-fortify the Cov'nant;
I mean our covenants to purchase
Delinquents' titles, and the churches, 880
That pass in sale, from hand to hand,
Among ourselves, for current land,
And rise or fall, like Indian actions,[5]
According to the rate of factions;
Our best reserve for Reformation, 885
When New outgoings give occasion;
Of heaven, and their warehouses?
Who, when the Cause is in distress,
Can furnish out what sums they please, 860
That brooding lie in bankers' hands,
To be dispos'd at their commands;
And daily increase and multiply,
With doctrine, use, and usury:
Can fetch in parties, as in war 865
All other heads of cattle are,
From th' enemy of all religions,
As well as high and low conditions,
And share them, from blue ribbons down
To all blue aprons in the town;[1] 870
From ladies hurry'd in calleches,
With cornets at their footmen's breeches.[2]
The bawds as fat as mother Nab,
All guts and belly, like a crab.[3]
Our party's great, and better tied 875
With oaths, and trade, than any side;[4]
Has one considerable improvement,
To double-fortify the Cov'nant;
I mean our covenants to purchase
Delinquents' titles, and the churches, 880
That pass in sale, from hand to hand,
Among ourselves, for current land,
And rise or fall, like Indian actions,[5]
According to the rate of factions;
Our best reserve for Reformation, 885
When New outgoings give occasion;
- ↑ Supposed by Dr Grey to mean the tradesmen and their apprentices, who wore blue aprons, and took a very active part in the troubles, both by preaching and fighting. But it appears from the Rump Songs that preachers also wore blue aprons.
- ↑ Callêche, or calash, a light carriage. Cornets were ornaments which servants wore upon their breeches.
- ↑ Ladies of this profession are generally described as coarse and fat. The orator means, that the leaders of the faction could fetch in parties of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest.
- ↑ The strength of the Presbyterian party lay in the citizens.
- ↑ Grey thinks this alludes to the subscription set on foot at the general court of the East India House, Oct. 19, 1657. Mercurius Politicus, No. 387.
