A TURN-COAT of the TIMES:
Who doth by Experience, profess and protest,
That of all Professions a Turn coats the best.
Tune is, The Kings delight: or, True Love is a Gift for a Queen.
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AS I was walking through
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Hide-park, as I usd to do;
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some two or three months ago,
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I laid me all along,
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Without any fear of wrong,
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And listend unto a Song;
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It came from a powdered Thing,
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As fine as a Lord or a King,
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he knew not that I
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was got so nigh,
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And thus he began to sing:
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I am a Turn-coat Knave,
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Although I do bear it brave;
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and do not shew all I have;
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I can with tongue and pen
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Court every sort of Men,
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And kill em as fast agen.
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With Zealots I can pray,
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With Cavileers I can play,
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with Shop-keepers I
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can cogg and lye,
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And couzen as fast as they.
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When first the wars began,
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And Prentices lead the van,
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twas I that did set them on;
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When they cryed Bishops down
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In Country, Court and Town,
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Quoth I, And have at the Crown:
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The Covenant I did take,
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For form and fashions sake;
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but when it would not
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support my Plot,
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Twas like an old Almanack.
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When Independency
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Had Superiority,
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I was of the same degree;
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When Keepers did command,
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I then had a holy hand,
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In Deans and in Chapters land,
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But when I began to spy
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Protectorship drew nigh,
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and Keepers were
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thrown ore the bar,
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Old Oliver, then cryd I.
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When Sectarifts got the day,
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I used my yea, and nay,
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to flatter and them betray:
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In Parliament I gat,
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And there a Member sat,
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To tumble down Church and State,
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For I was a trusty Trout
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In all that I went about;
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and there we did vow
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to sit till now,
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But Oliver turnd us out.
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We put down the House of Peers
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We killed the Cavileers,
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and tipled the Widows tears;
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We sequested Mens estates,
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And made em pay monthly rates
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To Trumpeters and their Mates.
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Rebellion we did Print,
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And altered all the Mint;
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no Knavery then
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was done by Men,
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But I had a finger int.
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When Charles was put to flight,
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Then I was at Worster fight,
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and got a good booty byt;
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At that most fatal fall
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I killd and plunderd all,
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The Weakest went to the wall;
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Whilst my merry Mates fell on,
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To pillaging I was gone,
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there is many (thought I)
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will come by and by,
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And why should not I be one?
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We triumphed like the Turk,
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We cripled the Scottish Kirk,
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that sets us at first to work;
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When Cromwell did but frown,
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They yielded every Town,
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St. Andrews Cross went down;
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But when old Noll did die,
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And Richard his Son put by,
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I knew not how
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to guide my plow,
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Where now shall I be? thought I.
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I must confess the Rump,
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Did put me in a dump,
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I knew not what would be trump;
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When Dick had lost the day,
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My gaming was at a stay,
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I could not tell what to play;
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When Monk was upon that Score,
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I thought I would play no more,
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I did not think what
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he would be at,
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I ner was so mumpt before.
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But now I am at Court,
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With Men of the better sort,
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to purchase a good Report;
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I have the eyes and ears
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Of many brave noble Peers,
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And flight the poor-Cavileers;
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Poor Knaves they know not how,
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To flatter, cringe and bow,
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for he that is wise,
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and means to rise,
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He must be a Turn-coat too.
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