A drum! quoth Phœbus; Troth, that's true,
A pretty invention, quaint and new:
But tho' of voice and instrument
We are th' undoubted president, 190
We such loud music do not profess;
The devil's master of that office,
Where it must pass; if 't be a drum,
He'll sign it with Cler. Parl. Dom. Com.[1]
To him apply yourselves, and he 195
Will soon despatch you for his fee.
They did so, but it proved so ill,
They'ad better let 'em grow there still.[2]
But to resume what we discoursing
Were on before, that is, stout Orsin; 200
That which so oft by sundry writers,
Has been applied t' almost all fighters,
More justly may b' ascribed to this
Than any other warrior, viz.
None ever acted both parts bolder, 205
Both of a chieftain and a soldier.
He was of great descent, and high
For splendour and antiquity,
And from celestial origine,
Derived himself in a right line. 210
Not as the ancient heroes did,
Who, that their base births might be hid,[3]
Knowing they were of doubtful gender,
And that they came in at a windore,[4]
Made Jupiter himself, and others 215
O' th' gods, gallants to their own mothers,
- ↑ During the civil wars, the Rump parliament granted patents for new inventions; these, and all other orders and ordinances, were signed by their clerk, with this addition to his name—Clerk of the Parliament House of Commons. Apollo sends the petitioners to that assembly, which he tells them is directed and governed by the devil, who will sanction the grant with the usual signature.
- ↑ The expedient of arming the discontented and unprincipled multitude is adventurous, and often proves fatal to the state.
- ↑ See Ion's address to his mother Creusa, when she had told him that he was son of Apollo. Euripides (Bohn's Transl. vol. ii. p. 121); also Spectator, p. 630.
- ↑ Wind-door is still the provincial term for "window."
