COME buy my new ballad, I have’t in my wallet, But ’twill not I fear please every pallate; Then mark what ensu’th, I swear by my youth That every line in my ballad is truth. A ballad of wit, a ballad of worth, ’Tis newly printed and newly come forth; ’Twas made of a cloak that fell out with a gown, That cramp’d all the kingdom and crippled the crown. I’ll tell you in brief A story of grief, Which happen’d when Cloak was Commander-in-chief; It tore common prayers, Imprison’d lord mayors, In one day it voted down prelates and prayers; It made people perjured in point of obedience, And the Covenant did cut off the oath of allegiance. Then let us endeavour to pull the Cloak down That cramp’d all the kingdom and crippled the crown. It was a black Cloke, In good time be it spoke, That kill’d many thousands but never struck stroke; With hatchet and rope The forlorn hope Did join with the Devil to pull down the Pope; It set all the sects in the city to work, And rather than fail ’twould have brought in the Turk. Then let us endeavour, etc. It seized on the tower-guns, Those fierce demi-gorgons, It brought in the bag-pipes, and brought in the organs; The pulpits did smoke, The churches did choke, And all our religion was turn’d to a cloak. It brought in lay-elders could not write nor read, It set public faith up and pull’d down the creed. Then let us endeavour, etc. This pious impostor Such fury did foster, It left us no penny nor no _pater-noster_; It threw to the ground The commandments down, And set up twice twenty times ten of its own; It routed the King and villains elected, To plunder all those whom they thought disaffected. Then let us endeavour, etc. To blind people’s eyes This Cloak was so wise, It took off ship-money, but set up excise; Men brought in their plate For reasons of state, And gave it to Tom Trumpeter and his mate. In pamphlets it writ many specious epistles, To cozen poor wenches of bodkins and whistles. Then let us endeavour, etc. In pulpits it moved, And was much approved For crying out, _Fight The Lord’s battles_, _beloved_; It bob-tayled the gown, Put Prelacy down, It trod on the mitre to reach at the crown; And into the field it an army did bring, To aim at the council but shoot at the King. Then let us endeavour, etc.