destroy, all's good that you decree
By your Infallible _Presbytery_,
Prosperous at first, in Ills you grow so vain,
You thought to play the _Old Game_ o'er again:
And thus the Cheat was put upon the Nation,
First with _Long Parliaments_, next _Reformation_,
And now you hop'd to make a new Invasion:
And when you can't prevail by open Force,
To cunning tickling Tricks you have recourse,
And raise Sedition forth without Remorse.
Confound these cursed _Tories_, then they cry, [In a preaching tone.
Those Fools, those Pimps to Monarchy,
Those that exclude the Saints; yet open th' Door,
To introduce the _Babylonian Whore_.
By Sacred _Oliver_ the Nation's mad;
Beloved, 'twas not so when he was Head:
But then, as I have said it oft before ye,
A _Cavalier_ was but a Type of _Tory_.
The Curs durst then not bark, but all the Breed
Is much encreas'd since that good Man was dead:
Yet then they rail' d against the _Good Old Cause_,
Rail'd foolishly for Loyalty, and Laws;
But when the Saints had put them to a stand,
We left them Loyalty, and took their Land:
Yea, and the pious Work of Reformation
Rewarded was with Plunder, Sequestration.
Thus cant the Faithful; nay, they're so uncivil,
To pray us harmless Players to the Devil.
When this is all th' Exception they can make,
They damn us for our Glorious Master's sake.
But why 'gainst us do you unjustly arm?
Our small Religion sure can do no harm;
Or if it do, since that's the only thing,
We will reform when you are true to th' King._

* * * * *
* * * *

NOTES: The Roundheads

[Transcriber's Note:

The Notes in the printed text give only page and line numbers.
Act-and-scene designations shown between +marks+ have been added by
the transcriber. Labels such as "Scene IIa" refer to points where the
scene description changes without a new scene number.]

NOTES ON THE TEXT.

+Dedication+

p. 337 _To The Right Noble Henry Fitz-Roy._ The Dedicatory Epistle
only appears in the two 4tos, 1682 and 1698.

p. 337, l. 31 _Good Old Couse._ 'Couse' to represent a Cockney
pronunciation.

p. 339, l. 28 _Ignoramus the 1st and the 2d._ Mrs. Behn deftly
compares the verdict of that faction which would have damned her
play with the verdict given by the City jury who acquitted
Shaftesbury.

+Prologue+

p. 341, l. 7 _ycleped Hew