No fool, to the old fool

No fool, to the old fool

Table of contents

NO FOOL, TO THE OLD FOOL:

[Page]

NO FOOL, TO THE OLD FOOL:

HEark ye my Masters;—for one half quarter of an hour now, let's be as Wise as Woodcocks; and talk a little Treason. Why should not we thrive in the world as well as our Neighbours? had not other people Heads, and Souls to lose as well as we? If men will be Damn'd, they had better Damn Rich than Poor:—as Bradshaw; and th' Attorney General Damn'd; and as they Damn at Westminster;—as Bishop Arthur does Intend to Damn: and there's another Fellow—what d'ye call him?—Pish—I'm the worst at names—he had a writing office, I remember;—he that sold a Parcel of Prisoners to a Scrivener:—he served a Lawyer once, and afterwards a Brewer, Both of a name—That fellow, will Damn, Damn'dly Rich. His Master too, is in a fair way to th' Devil. I could name you a Hundred of these thriving Lads, whom, though the honest world despises;—believe me,—Two or three hundred-Thousand pound, is a Convenient Plaster for a Broken Head; there's something to bear Charges yet. There's Power and Plenty.—They cousen, whom they please:—Hang, and Draw, at will;—they keep their Lacquies, and their Whores: and at the last, they go to Hell in Triumph. They have their Blacks, and Elegies, and leave the State to pay the Draper, and the Poet. Twould make a man bepisse himself, to see the soft, and tender-hearted Needham, weeping (like Niobe, till he turn's t'a stone) over the Tomb of Bradshaw,—to see him cry with one eye, and Laugh with th' other, and yet, the Tragicomical puppy, keeps his Countenance. The Teares of such a Saint, cannot but Fall, like drops of Lambeth-Ale, upon the Tongue of Dives,—how great a Consolation was it (think ye) to the late Protector, to find himself placed at the Right hand of God? by Sterry (that Blasphemous, bold Phanatique) of whose Condition, Charity it self can scarce admit a comfortable thought. For, after a long Course, of Treason, Murther, Sacrilege, Perjury, Rapine, &c. he finish'd his accursed Life, in Agony, and Fury; and without any mark of true Repentance. You'll say he was the Braver Villain for't.—Crimes of this large Extent, have indeed something that's Masouline to allay them. But to be Damn'd for Sneaking, To purchase Hell at the price of all that's pleasant here:—to contract sin, and Beggery, in the same act and Moment; This is the most Impudent, and Ridiculous wickedness that may be. He that Indents with the Devil, has a merry Bargain, compar'd with us; There's Time, and Pleasure. Here, the Vengeance treads upon the Heels of the offence; and the Punishment of our Misdoings, is the necessary▪ and next immediate effect of them.—In Paying Taxes, to an Ʋsurped Power; There, a Defection from the Righ [...], and a Complyance with the Wrong, renders us Doubly Criminal—and in this Case, we doe but buy our Chaynes, and the very next effect of our Disobedience, is Slavery▪ It comes all to a Point, in what concerns subjection to unlawfull Powers. Vnder a Force,—is a Brutish Argument. Vice is the Obliquity of the Will: That's Free. The same Plea lies in the Case of Martyrdom: and by the same Rule we may renounceour Maker.

If wicked, we're resolv'd to be,—Let's go a nobler way to work—let's get a matter of Half a dozen crafty Knaves toget [...]e [...]; take in some thirty or forty slye Rascals into the Gang, and call our selves a Parliament. Why Gentlemen? this is no imp [...]ssible thing, Our Title is as good as theirs, that ha' done the same thing before us, but then be sure of the Proportion. Seven parts of eight must have neither Wit nor Honesty: yet doe look as wise as Judges, and in the middle of their Pater-nosters pick their neighbours pockets. These are to be directed by the Rooks, and by them both, the Nation, which would be over▪ stock'd with Cheats, were any more admitted into the Grand Conspiracy against the people, To Personal abuses, the rest are likewise qualified. They may imprison when, where, and whom they please, without cause shewed, their Will is a sufficient warrant for the well-affected. In Fine, they are the Peoples voice, and that' [...] the voice of Heaven.

Why now should we despair of the same events, from the same means, considering, what a drowsie Patient, and phlegmatick People we have to deal with? Shall's Fool a little? Let us vote down Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right! —Settle a Preaching Militia, and a fighting Ministry? —out with our whinyards, and off with the names, instead of the Heads of the Kings Tryers; as Okey did upon the Change. Take away Monk's Commission; Petition the Souldiery to petition us, to declare our selves perpetual;—Bind up the Nation under Limitation for the next Session, and exclude all but our own party from the Choice. No matter for the Law or Conscience of the business—ARTICLES OF SURRENDER; and Publick ACTS of INDEMNITY, amount to nothing▪—OATHS, and COVENANTS, are but occ [...]sion [...]l Submissons to conveniency: not binding any man, that in the very act of taking them, resolves to break them. Let things come to the worst; when we have overturned the Government;—Polluted the very altar, with our MASTERS BLOOD—Cheated the Publique, &c.—It is but to whine, and snivel to the People; tell them we were misled, by Carnal Appetites;—cloath all our Rogueryes, in Scripture-Phrase—Humble our selves before the Lord; (but not a Sy [...]lable concerning Restitution) and they'll forgive us; Nay, perhaps, Trust us too: Think us their Friends for doing them no more than All the Harm we could.—'Tis a good natu'rd sort of Beast,—the Common-people, if it be Pleased; and 'tis the Easiest thing in Nature, for Fools and Knaves to Please it. They have not been gull'd half long enough yet,—what will you say now, to a New-Parliament made of an Old one? as There's no Fool, to the Old one, so there's no Knave to the Old one.

What do ye think of your Episcopal Cole-marchant Sir Arthur, for Durham: and let him bring in his Fellow-Labourer Sir Harry Vane for Newcastle? In the City of London, you cannot choose amisse, provided, that Ireton or Titchburn, be One; and that he chuse his Fellows.—For Kent, no man like Sir Michael Livesy, (a Knave, a Fool, and a Coward.)—For Norfolk, let Miles Corbet be one, and if the House does not like him, let 'um recommend him to the Red Bull, for he personates a Fool or a Devil, without the charge either of a Habit or a Vizor. If the Nation be so charitably disposed, as to erect an Hospital in favour of the Lame, the Rotten, and the Blind, let 'um take in Limping Luke Robinson; Rheumatique Mounson (this poor Gentlemen has the mourning of the Chine;) Bobtayl'd Scot; and the Blinking Cobler.—But why do I pretend to direct in particular?—Among the Kings Tryers; Excise men, Sequestratours, Close Committee-men, Major-Generals, Buyers and Sellers of Crown and Church-lands, &c.—they may wink and chuse. Alas, they're all converted. I'm sure he's Right, cryes one; he Told me so. Dull Sotts that we are! let us be Right our Selves; and then, what need we care who's wrong? I'll put a Case to you: suppose, upon the Dissolution of this Session, six or seven thousand of the Phanatique Souldjery, that knows, a Settlement destroys their Trade; should Try a Blow for't yet; and by the help of some of their Confedederates, yet in appearance of Authority, should put a Force upon the Honest Party: ('Tis but to suppose, what many of that Gang are bold enough in Publique to declare) I have a Phansy you'll look on still, and betake your selves to your Old senseless Plea,—They have the Power.—Which, if you do—No no; you cannot be so tame, and witlesse. Be carefull whom you Trust, either in your Militia, or Counsels; Chuse Persons of Estates Honestly gotten; Such, whom the Law preserves, will preserve the Law.

Whereas, If you chuse such as have an Interest of their Own, that th'warts the Publique; you're very Charitable, to Believe that those very People, who all this while, have cheated you to benefit them selves, should, at the last, adventure all to preserve you.

Look before you leap

THO. SCOT.

March 16. 1659.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

No fool, to the old fool

L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.

Edition statement

1660

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A87895

ID [STC]

Wing L1279A

ID [STC]

Thomason 669.f.24[16]

ID [STC]

ESTC R211661

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

99870370

ID [PROQUEST]

99870370

ID [VID]

163747

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A87895)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 163747)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 247:669f24[16])

Source

— No fool, to the old fool, L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704..

Extent

1 sheet ([1] p.)

s.n.,. [London :: 1660]. (Signed and dated at end: Tho. Scot. [i.e. Sir Roger L'Estrange] March 16. 1659.) (Imprint from Wing.) (Reproduction of the original in the British Library.)

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.