OBSERVATIONS UPON PRINCE RVPERT'S WHITE DOG, CALLED BOY:  
Carefully taken by T. B. For that purpose employed by some of quality in the City of LONDON.   depiction of a dog (probably meant to be Prince Rupert's dog, Boy) 
Printed in the Year, MDCILII.   

OBSERVATIONS Upon Prince RUPERT 'S white Dog called BOY.  
Right Worshipful,  
SInce the unfortunate death of Mr. Blake, I have, according to the direction of the two Secretaries you named to me, had a strict eye upon Prince rupert's Dog called BOY; whom I cannot conclude to be a very downright Devil, (as is supposed) or a spirit sent to nourish division in Church or State (though I must confess the Irish Papists are very familiar with him in private) but certainly he is some Lapland Lady, who by nature was once an handsome white woman, and now by Art is become an handsome white Dog, and hath vowed to follow the Prince to preserve him from mischief. Which I doubt not to induce you to believe, when I shall have delivered you my Observations, first of his Qualities, next of his Behaviour to others, and lastly, of others Behaviour to him.  

I. For his Qualities.  
1. IN the first place, He can Prophecy. I mean not as our Master Green the Haberdasher doth Prophecy, that is, expound the Scripture by private Spirit; but he prophecies of future events; and his Master's footman, a Laplander, doth expound him. Among other things, he hath prophesied, that the King shall enter London before May day next, with threescore thousand horse and foot; that the Dog himself shall be Courted, that he adds, more round than his own, shall bow to him; that he shall ride in a City Pageant triumphantly overlooking the people, and be feasted by a lawful Lo. Major; and that the City, Lasty, shall proffer him two tubs of Custard-stuffe a week to bathe in, which he is not yet resolved to accept of. And it is thought that his Prophecies (for now at last they begin to turn our own arts upon us) will be printed here in Oxford in opposition to M. Booker's Almanacs.  
2. He hath the art of finding out Concealed goods, for since ●he King hath been resident in the University, he and the Heads of both Houses have discovered the plate, that the Lord Say and Sir john Seton could not; which for fear it may hereafter fall into such hands (I desire you to conceive I speak their words) the University desires may be melted down in New-inn Hall (an house that accounts casting of Dollars lawful) and coined for the use of the King and true Parliament.  
3 He is endued with the gift of Languages, which yet he hath the art to hid very well. For with a kind of generous confidence he mounts the Table and the cupboard, under a pretence of courting his Master, and by that cunning means hath his care oftener than his Barber hath: for the Prince taketh but little care of his head. Besides he whispers those of the Noble men that are most true to the King, as often as the spirit doth M. Case, or those godly Teachers that are most true to the Parl. Some of great place and good account, who love to eavesdrop all informations, have sworn to me they plainly distinguish the accents of the Dog's language to sound like our Hebrew. Whereupon I advised with some of the Professous here, (who in their hearts incline to our Side) who out of curiosity preffed near, but they told me his whispers then seemed to them to be a mixed language, somewhat between Hebrew & High dutch which (they say) if any, was most probably the language of the Beasts before the curse. He also discourseth ordinarily with some Masters of Art, and many times understands them more, than it is possible they should understand one another: which kind of discourse they truly call Chopping of Logic. This quality admits him into all company, whose relations he relates to his Master, and his Master again to the King, and thus all our spies are discovered, and BOY doth that which many of the Kings own servants will not.  
4 He is weapon-proofe himself, and probably hath made his Master so too, myself and the rest whom you have employed to be of the conspiracy against him, have always failed of our attempts, as if something more than witchcraft watched over him. Once I gave him a very hearty stroke, with a confiding Dagger, but it slided off his skin as if it had been Armour of proof anointed overwith Quicksilver. Besides he hath been tempted with pieces of Capon and other choice morsels, as well seasoned all, as poison and extemporary prayer could do it: but the Cur as obstinately rejected them, as if he had known beforehand what they were, so that they hurt him no more than the plague-plaister, sent in the Letter did Mr. Pym. That which they say of him, that he usually sets his mouth as ● trap, and catcheth bullets as they fly, (though you shall never see him, but with a brace hanging under his tail, as if he had but lately swallowed them, & were still ready to void them) upon my credit it is a mere slander. But it is most certain that he doth things near as strange. For when his Master the Prince hath forgot to put his characters between his shirt and his skin, some bullets he blows by, others he breaks the force of so that they either no more touch him, then if they were aimed at the edge of a penknife, or if they do, do him no more harm than they would have done, if he had his characters about him. He is of too much valour himself; and though what my L. Brooks told you in a speech at Guild Hall, about our very Dogs being killed, be in the thing true enough, yet notwithstanding his Lp. hath wrote a book of truth, by his favour I must tell him he was mistaken in the person that did the execution; for upon my word, the King's men killed our men, and none but the Prince's Dog killed our Dogs.  
5 And lastly. He can go invisibly himself, and make others do so too. He hath often been where no body hath seen him, & done that that no body else could. Who think you conveyed Oneal out of the Tower? even BOY. Who conveyed the L. Digby first in to Hull afterwards out again? even BOY. Who got Legg out of prison? even BOY. who released Bamfield? verily BOY still. Yet who all this while less suspected than BOY? and now, if ever, I beseech you have an eye to yourselves; for he goes oftener between Oxford and London, every weeek, than the three Carriers do. He conveys Letters without being broken open, and brings money without being rob. He it is that lays the Apprentices Design in one shape, and then leads them on to the Action in another: one day he is Philip the Shoemaker, and another day Tom the Barber. And when he would find out our counsels, he mingles himself with the good apprentices; sometime appears like Ezekiel, M. Bostock the bookbinders' boy; and sometimes like Nathaniel, Mrs. Green's Freeman. Under these disguises he brings us false Informations, and carries them true, and certainly no one else infuseth into the Apprentices what they should do for the King, and what against my Lord Say. This he doth himself. Then upon my certain knowledge he doth usually break a black cloud about Prince Rupert too, in which he goes as invisible as our Church, or our Faith doth, or as our Charity should. And by this mystical means it was, that the Prince so often passed our Guards undiscovered, and by so many disguises entered those Towns of Ours, which the book to that purpose sets down very edifyingly. By this means he was the Appleman at Dunsmore-heath, the Netseller in Coventry, and the Old woman in Warwick: By this means he is all things and nothing, and no doubt is often at our common-council in London, marking out some of Our Citizens for death, and some of their wives for life, some of our Aldermen for plunder, & some perhaps for sport: Which tokens because they proceed from the assistance of this Dog, and are fastened on us, we may truly call the Marks of the Beast upon the Godly.   

II. For his behaviour to Others.  
2. FIrst in respect to Civil (or rather uncivil) affairs, I find it very Lose, and Strumpet-like. For he salutes and kisseth the Prince, as close as any Christian woman would; and the Prince salutes & kisseth him back again as savourly, as he would (I will not say an Alderman's wise, but) any Court-Lady, and is as little offended with his Breathing. Then they lie perpetually in one bed, sometimes the Prince upon the Dog, and sometimes the Dog upon the Prince; and what this may in time produce, none but the close Committee can tell. Next to his Master, he loves the King, & the King's Children, and cares very little for any other. For, (that I may give you a late observation,) When Our six Aldermen delivered the City-petition, the Dog lay just before Alderman Garret, with his eyes fixed on the King and his Master, and with one foot on the King's toe, & another on Prince Charles his: and whiles Master Skinner was reading the Petition, though he read it so that few conceived what they meant by it, yet the Dog jogd them still in the right place, not a pithy period, or good word escaped him, as if he had known the meaning of it as well as the Bearers themselves did: But, what was most remarkable; when that Judicious and Alderman-like Clause came (the King should return into their safe Custody) this Devil-Dogge pressed the little Prince's foot so hard, that he was forced to hem aloud to recover his Spirits: By which we may see plainly, this Dog likes not the King's return to London without his Army.  
Next in respect to spiritual Affairs; In all exercises of Religion he carries himself most Popishly and Cathedrally. He observes our Fasts, no more than we do their Feasts; He never is at any private Prayers, and very seldom at any conscionable Sermons. But as for public Prayers, he seldom or never misseth them: and he no sooner enters the Choir, but he presently trots up towards the East end, where there is a Painted window above, and an Altar below, both which with the Rails make up one great Idol. Then he is much taken with their Copes, & Surplices, and singing books, & (since some of the Gentlemen of the Chapel are come down) with the singing men too. But above all (as hath been observed) assoon as their Church Minstrel with the long lock be gins to play his Arbitrary Jig, he is as attentive as one of us private Christians are at S. Antholins', and marks the Tune, as if there were Doctrine and Use in it, and if he could write short hand, without all peradventure he would take it, as some of our great Ladies do Sermons now in London.   

III. For Others behaviour to Him.  
3. FIrst, (I remember I told you before of his Masters kissing him, but not of his way of wooing him,) Prince Rupert never courts him without an express detestation of the Roundheads, so that he commonly takes the name of God's Children in vain. How much better were it to court him with Yea, and Nay, then to use such Blasphemies and Profanations? But the Reprobate Dog takes it all so well, that he is not pleased with any one that speaks to him civilly, or accosts him otherwise then Cavalier-like.  
Next, all men in general make much of him, and the truth is, they dare do not otherwise; For if they do, they are sure to hear of it in one misfortune or other. 'tis observed that most of the Gentlemen that were killed at Edgehill had injured the Dog's reputation some way or other, and forgot to give him satisfaction before they went to the Battle. The Lo: Ta●ff did but speak angrily to him, and the same morning was shot in the mouth for it. The Lo: Bernart Stuard kicked him the night before the Battle, for harkening what he said to a fair Lady, and this spiteful Cur got him shot in the very same toe that kicked him. The King himself never dines nor sups, but continually he feeds him. And with what think you? even with Rumps and Sidesmen of Capons, and such Christianlike morsels. And if this be not too profane, I know not what is. For let his Majesty profess, and profess, as long as he will, I beseech you mark how I can come over him. Either he knows this Dog is, or is not a Witch; If he knows he is a Witch, he profanes against that place of Scripture that says, Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live. If he knows he is not a Witch, than he profanes against that other place, Cast not that which is holy unto Dogs. For if the Rumps and Sidesmen in crammed fowl be not the holy parts, I discern not which are. But to return. Majesty may do any thing (as they say) and therefore it is thought the King will shortly call a Council of War, and in imitation of our proceed will make him a new Officer of State, Sergeant Major General Boy. Truly, truly, the King's affection is so extraordinary to him, that some in the Court envy him, and others nourish fears and jealousies of him. I heard a Gentleman Ʋsher swear the other day, that it was a great shame the Dog should sit in the King's Chair, as he always doth: and a great Lord was seriously of opinion, that it was not well he should converse so much with the King's Children, lest he taught them to swear before they knew what an oath was.  
One thing of very great moment I had almost forgot, and that is this. Whenever the King's Council is persuading his Majesty to an accommodation, and resolvedly pressing him to return to his other Council the Parl. in comes this enemy to peace, and the Parliaments purposes, and (as if he could turn men's minds, as his Master doth the Wind before a Battle, by untying a knot of his Handkerchief) presently they speak of blood, and war, and the Destruction of London, and vow they have not power to think of any thing else. Now consider if it be accounted Witchcraft to make men impotent in their Bodies, what is it to make them impotent at their minds?  
These particulars I thought good to send you, that out of so many you might pick what is of most consequence for the good of the Commonwealth, and the promotion of a Reformation.  
To sum up all. I beseech you now consider, That this Dog was once a Woman, but is now a profane Metamorphosis Dog; that he prophesies as well as my Lady Davis, or Mother Shipton could, that he helps the Colleges to their lost spoons and two-eared pots; that he speaks as many Languages, and as hard ones as Satan or Master Rroughton; that he is as shot-free as if his skin were voted Impenetrable; that he can be invisible when he will; insomuch that he is often smelled where he is not seen; that he communicates with that bloody Prince, as his familiar; that he loves Organs, and true singing, and such Diabolical Charms; that he hath his private revenges still going; and (what is above all this) that he discountenanced the Alderman's Petition; and tell me then is not this a Dog that is no Dog, but a Witch, a Sorceress, an enemy to Parliament, (that is, to Church & State) a mere Malignant Cavalier-Dog, that hath something of devil in or about him?  
Sir, I desire you that I may be quit of all further employment in this nature; For it is impossible to destroy him, until the Colonies of new England come in to help us: they know how to order these Dog-Witches better far than we. Brotherly assistance may then perhaps do something. In the mean time you may do well to move it in the common Council, that in their next Petition they would insert a Clause about his removal from the King. Thus I commit you to the protection of both Houses, I rest   
Your worship's most faithful, and diligent servant, T. P.  
FINIS.