THE EARL OF PEMBROKES Farewell to the KING, At his departure from the TREATY In the Isle of Wight; With His Majesties REPLY.
ALSO, His SPEECH in the House of LORDS, at his returne safe home from the Treaty.
Taken Verbatim by Michael Oldisworth.
Printed in the Yeer. 1648.
THE EARL OF PEMBROKES Farewell to the KING.
I Am now to take my leave of you; yet I intend not to leave you quite, and not see you againe, and yet by God I may too: Damme this Leaving has been the undoing of the Kingdom, for had not your Majestie left White-hall, the Parliament had not left you; nor had the Army seiz'd on you: 'Tis an old Proverbs, Leave is light, but this leaving has produc'd many a heavie businesse in this Nation. Your Majestie is now in the hands of Hucksters, Damme and Hacksters too; Your Majestie had better to have sign'd to the Propositions of the Parliament at first, unsight or unseen, without quirks and Queries of Conscience, then there had been no more to doe with you; You might have been before this time with us in your Parliament-House, and then the Army might have been with the Devill for me; Now they in [...]nd to try ye; Indeed you are the Kingdomes Trustee, and by God, in my judgement, they ought to try ye before they Trust yee. They have fought against you and your Majesty hath fought against them, and if they had not conquer'd you, then your Majestie might have conquer'd them; Your Valour [Page 4] they have suff [...]ciently try'd a [...]ready, and your Patience too, and think you that they will spare your Person; No, they will try yee, and you shall have the same play as they desire themselves when they begge to be try'd by their Peers, and pray are not those your Peers that have won it by the sword; and if they have wenne it, by God, J see no reason but they may we are it too: Jf J fight with another man, and beat him, and disarme him, is not that man at my mercy, and have not J power to to kill him if J will? Let Law be what it will; you know might overcomes Right; Damme, J can hardly right mine owne Name, but yet J can [...]ight my self if J am abused by one that is weaker then my self; but if he be stronger then my self, J can as well take an affront as offer it. For the Treaty, it is now ended, and so it might have been before it had began, for the good it hath brought the Kingdome: Damme, 'twas never good World s [...]nce this Treating was invented, Treating and signing, and a great deal of of stir, to no purpose; a great deal of Pu [...]pit- prating, but no practise, a great cry, but a little wool quoth the Devil when he shore his hoggs; 'Zblood give me the substance, and let the Signe goe where it will; Signing, Damme J thinke we are are all sign'd with the Signe of the CROSSE, for nothing prospers that we take in hand; Zblood sure wee are be witch'd with a Shee-Owle, for all the Nations in Christendom whoots at us; Nay the Great Turke himself (J have clean forgot his Christen Name) hates to have any Commerce with us wee are growne so perfixious and disloyall; Damme, would J were a Turke too, for they have a thousand times more regall honesty then wee that sweare and lie on purpose to deceive and ruine one another; make Covenants and Vows to God, on purpose to ensare and entrap our Brethren, that so wee may make a prey of them; And now wee must have Levelling with a pox to 'em, every mans Estate shall be alike, No King no Prince Duke, Earle, Barron nor Knight; what the Devill would they have us be trow [...]an any body tell? For my part, J [...]m an O [...]m [...]n and i [...] they thinke J deserve not as much Honor as my Lord Say, Let 'em Say what they will, call me Spade, Parliament-man, Gaffar; Mouth omnipotent, or what they will, it's all one to Phillip [...] [Page 5] for J have so much understanding, as to know my Age i [...] honorable; and therefore if they denie me my Honor, they cannot denie me my Age, and that it is makes me honorable: and if they will not suffer the Lords to sit, nor have an eggetive Voice, then J can hold my tongue in an affirmative Voice, or sit as a mute in the House of Commons, and speak their dumbe showes for them: For my Religion, I can keep that to my self, and neither trouble God nor man with it: By God I thinke it is Religion has set this Kingdome on a sight flame, for too much Light is a deadly consumer, I know it by my House; Damee, too much Light burnt it down to the very ground, and so will these New Lights burn down not onely the whole Kingdome, but the whole World too at the last day, I am sure it makes me twi-light to think on't, for I grow sleepy, and will hasten to an end, on [...]y I [...]e give your Majestie a word of destruction, and conclude: Damme, Content is a Kingdom over, and over, or top [...]y turvey; therefore you must be content; beside Patience is a Crown, and if impatient men uncrown you, your Patience must Crown you again; (that's Patience perforce) so you exchange but one crown for another & al know, Exchange is no robbery: S [...]nk me, I am as impatient an Asse (If I be but throughly vext,) as any creature living; yet I can have Patience, and suffer too, (to prevent a mischief) nay, suffer my self to be crost too, (over the back with a switch) by a base Scot too, and yet had the Patience to suffer this, rather then raise a War; a Pox of this Warring for mee, and this jarring too; I am sure I am not a thousand pounds the better for it; though some I could Name, (and not be a false SPEAKER) that have purchased thousands a yeer by it; Damme, I hate fighting, for it was I that swore at your Majestie for fighting against the Scots, and caused you to withdraw your Forces, and come safe home againe, and Jockey to jogge back into his own Countrey; And this I did to prevent Warre; and by God would doe as much againe to prevent Warre, and the ru [...]ne that follows it, and would doe my business (if need were) in any place, to bring home a happy, welcome, and long expected Peace.
Your Majestie knowes I am an ill Ornitor, therefore as I began, I will make an end; And leave you to the will of the Army.
His Majesties Answer to my Lord of Pembrokes SPEECH.
AMidst all my miseries you make me merry; I have no more to say to you, but that in my fall, you may behold your owne, and that suddenly; For my part, I am rewarded Evil for Good, from them that pretend themselves Saints, and the most Godly party, but indeed the worst of sinners, and most disobedient of my subjects, as appears by their former professions & late actions, not only against me, but against the authority of both my Houses of Parliament; My Lord, when I demanded 5. Members, upon just evidence of guilt; Was it not adjuded both by you and them a grand breach of Priviledge? And if by me (a King,) so great a breach, pray what is it in them, that take away 11. at one time, seven Lords at another time, and now some 40. or 50. more? God forgive them, I doe, and am arm'd to suffer whatever their mallice can alledge, or their rage act against me; I aske, nor expect mercy from them, but look up to One that is able to deliver me, and mine: Nothing afflicts me more then the Sufferings of my oppressed People; yet my hope is, That HEE that hath given me (their King) strength to beare the heaviest burden of woe, will enable them (my Subjects) to bear the lighter; But our hope is in God. My Lord, farwell, I expect hourly an end of all my Troubles, and then begins your owne, and then comes theirs that caused both;
My Lord of Pembroks Speech in the House of Lords, at his returne from the TREATY.
DAmme, I mistake your Titles, I may call you as well Spades, Down-diddles, or any thing; for down you must, that's flatt; levell'd; all fellows now: By God 'tis but just with us, if the Army would pull down our Breeches and whip us: we have sate these 7. yeers to pull down the King (with a pox) [Page 7] and now we must be pull'd down our selves by a p [...]cky Generall (Army I should say.) 'Zblood, Treating; the Devill shall Treat next for me; Damme, I knew the effect of Treating before we went: We must goe (like so many Hobby-Horses) to the Isle of Wight to Treat with the King, and then come home againe (like so many Doccer-heads) to Intreat a company of Shack-ragg lowsie Souldiers. Damme, our souldiers are now our Kings, Dukes, Lords, Preachers, nay and Cash-keepers too; 'Zblood we are like to have a thorow Reformation indeed, for if you are not of their Judgement, you shall be run thorow, and thorow againe; a bloody Canish Religion indeed. I am Chancellor of Oxford; 'Zblood I had better be Master of the Bare-garden, and Deform Bears in stead of Schollars, when I my self must be taught and govern'd by Scullars, Brewers and Tinkers, and a company of thin-skulls that have no more hare then with, nor no more with then honesty, and yet more craft then Conscience, more cruelty then coine: I thank God I am neither Souldier nor Schollar; but an upright Commonwealths-man. 'Tis confest, I have been a Privie Counsellor, but Damme, I scorne to be an Evill Counsellor; though I have unjustly given sentence in the Starr-chamber, and Counsellboard; for evill, I thought none; and could I Act Evell and not thinke evill? No, evill be to them that evill thinke, and J thank God J can justifie my innocence by my Jgnorance; Before J would Evill Counsell Kingdome, Par [...]iament or Army, J [...] [...] Barly-Broath in Hell eternally with the Malignant Commons; Damme, J hate to Traytor my Lord and King the Kingdome, which consists of the Body of the People, which maketh a King, and may as well marre a King, who is but their Trustee, or Deputie; Damme J acknowledge no other King then my Soveraigne Lord the Common-People, who is both Creator of King Parliament, and all other Officers and Ministers of Justice: Damme, a Plow-boy is as much a King, (if my Lord the PEOLE p [...]ease) as King Charles; beside a plowboy is the maker of a King, and ought not every King to acknowledge his Maker: Jf he claimes the Kingdom by the Norman Conquest; then by God, my Lord Fairfax may lay claime to it as well as hee, for he hath conquer'd it againe from him; [Page 8] and if Lord or Earle be usurped, or derived from the Danes, who as Chronicle-makers say, were called Lurdanes or Lord-Danes, because they lived Lordly, or idly upon others labors, as many of our Army doe; therefore if Lord be a Title of Reproach, and not of Honour, wee may thanke the Army for taking away this Reproach from us; For my part Sirs (for LORDS I will not call you) they shall not need to take away my Honor or Titles, for I hold it more honourable to submit my Honor and Titles to th [...]m that knows better how to support them then my selfe; therefore for my part, let them take them, I lay them downe, and see no reason but you May doe so to; Damme, you ought to submit, when you cannot otherwise helpe it; and if you will still remaine obstinate, then take what followes; And so the blessing of Issachar rest continually upon you all.
SIRS J am never tedious in my Impressions, and therefore include my SPEECH, and desire you seriously to consider of the scope and sirrup of what I have said,
Vera Copia.