THE

INTERPRETER.

Wherein three principal Terms of State,

much mistaken by the vulgar,

are clearly unfolded.

Qui vult decipi, decipiatur.

Anno 1622.

To such as understand not the English

tongue perfectly.

|HAT the unwise may learn to understand
How certain Words are used in our land;
And that they may write sense, whilst they
remain

In foreign parts, or shall return again;
(For idioms, fashions, manners alter here,
As friendship and religion everywhere) :
I have some elegancies for our tongue
Observed, as they are usèd now, among
Our ablest linguists, who mint for the Court
Words fit to be proclaimed; and do resort
Where lords and ladies couple and converse,
And trade lip learning, both in prose and verse.
And by these few, the docible may see
How rich our language is! religious, we!

Time was, a PURITAN was counted such
As held some Ceremonies were too much
Retained and urged; and would no Bishops grant,
Others to rule, who government did want.

Time was, a PROTESTANT was only taken
For such as had the Church of Rome forsaken;
Or her known falsehoods in the highest point:
But would not, for each toy, true peace disjoint.
Time was, a PAPIST was a man who thought
Rome could not err, but all her Canons ought
To be canonical; and, blindly led,

He from the Truth, for fear of Error, fled.

But now these words, with divers others more,
Have other senses than they had before:
Which plainly I do labour to relate,
As they are now accepted in our State.

(So nicknamed, but indeed the sound Protestant.)

PURITAN is such another thing

As says, with all his heart, " GOD save the
King

And all his issue!" and to make this

good,

Will freely spend his money and his blood;
And in his factious and fond mood, dare

say,

"'Tis madness, for the Palsgrave, thus to stay
And wait the loving leisure of kind Spain!
Who gets at first, only to give again
In courtesy, that faithless heretics

May taste the Faith and Love of Catholics.
And Hope too!" For a Puritan is he
That doth not hope these Holy Days to see;
And would a wasted country, on condition
Scorn to receive! although the High Commission
Of England, Spain, and Rome would have it so.
False favours he'd not take from a true foe!

A Puritan is he, that rather had

Spend all, to help the States (he is so mad !),
Than spend one hundred thousand pounds a year
To guard the Spanish coasts from pirates' fear:
The whilst, the Catholic King might force combine
Both Holland, Beame, and Palz to undermine;
And by his cross-curse-Christian counterwork
To make Rome both for Antichrist and Turk

236 THE INTERPRETER.

THE PURITA N. [1622.

Right Catholic. So th' Empire first divided,
By Holy Mother's pious plots (who sided

The East, and West; that she might get between,
And sit aloft, and govern like a Queen);

The Turk did great Constantinople gain,
And may win Rome too, by the help of Spain.
A Puritan is he that would not live

Upon the sins of other men; nor give
Money for Office in the Church or State,
Though 'twere a Bishopric: he so doth hate
All ceremonies of the Court and Church,
Which do the coffer and the conscience lurch
Of both the[ir] treasures. So that (covetous!) he
Would not have such as want both, better be!
A Puritan is he that thinks, and says
He must account give of his works and ways:
And that whatsoever calling he assumes,
It is for others' good. So he presumes
Rashly to censure such as wisely can
(By taking timely bribes of every man),
Enrich themselves: knowing to that sole end,
GOD and the King did, them their honours send;
And that Simplicity hath only mounted

By virtue; but such fools, they'll not be counted!
A Puritan is he, that, twice a day,
Doth, at the least, to GOD devoutly pray,
And twice a Sabbath, he goes to church to hear,
To pray, confess his sins, and praise GOD there
In open sight of all men: not content
GOD knows his heart, except his knee be bent,
That men, and angels likewise, may discern
He came to practise there, as well as learn ;
And honour GOD with every outward part,
With knee, hand, tongue, as well as with the heart.
A Puritan is he, which grieves to think

Religion should in France shipwreck and sink;

Whilst we give aim! and that those men should sway
The kingdom there, who made the King away

The whilst all such as helped to crown the father* [* HENRY IV.)
Should by the son t be now proscribed the rather.
A Puritan, in unadvised zeal,

XIII.]

1622] THE INTERPRETER.

THE PURITAN. 237

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.]