The BALLAD of the CLOAK: Or, The Cloaks Knavery.  
To the Tune of, From Hunger and Cold, or Packington's Pound.  
COme buy my new Ballet, I have't in my Wallet, But 'twill not I fear please every Pallet: Then mark what ensu'th, I swear by my Youth, That every Line in my Ballad is truth: A Ballad of Wit, a brave Ballad of worth, 'Tis newly printed, and newly come forth. 'Twas made of a Cloak that fell out with a Gown, that cramped all the Kingdom, and crippled the Crown.  

I'll tell you in brief,  
A story of Grief,  
Which happened when Cloak was Commander in Chief:  
It tore Common Prayers,  
Imprisoned Lord May'rs,  
In one day it voted down Prelates and Prayers;  
It made People perjured in point of Obedience,  
And the Covenant did out off the Oath of Allegiance.  
Then let us endeavour to pull the Cloak down,  
That cramped all the Kingdom and crippled the Crown.   

It was a Black Cloak,  
In good time be it spoke,  
That killed 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 Bagpipes, and pulled down the Organs:  
The Pulpits did smoke,  
The Churches did Choke;  
And all our Religion was turned to a Cloak:  
It brought in Lay-Elders could not write nor read▪  
It set Public Faith up, and pulled down the Creed.  
Then let us endeavour, etc.   

This pious impostor  
Such fury did foster,  
It left us no Penny, nor no Paternoster:  
It threw to the Ground  
Ten 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 Lards Battles beloved:  
It bobtailed 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.   

It raised up States,  
Whose politic Pates  
Do now keep their Quarters on the City Gates:  
To Father and Mother,  
To Sister and Brother,  
It gave a Commission to kill one another:  
It took up Men's Horses at very low Rates,  
And plundered our Goods to secure our Estates.  
Then let us endeavour, etc.   

This Cloak did proceed  
To a damnable Deed,  
It made the best mirror of Majesty bleed:  
Though Cloak did not do't,  
He set it on Foot,  
By rallying and calling his Journeymen to't:  
For never had come such a Bloody Disaster,  
If Cloak had not first drawn a Sword at his Master.  
Then let us endeavour, etc.   

Though some of them went hence  
By sorrowful Sentence,  
This lofty long Cloak is not moved to Repentance;  
But he and his Men,  
Twenty Thousand times ten,  
Are plotting to do their tricks over again:  
But let this proud Cloak to Authority stoop,  
Or DUN will provide him a Button and Loop:  
Then let us endeavour to pull the Cloak down,  
That basely did sever the Head from the Crown.   

Let's pray, That the King,  
And His Parliament,  
In Sacred and Secular Things may consent;  
So Righteously firm,  
And Religiously free;  
That Papists and Athests suppressed may be.  
And as there's one Deity doth over-reign us,  
One Faith, and one Form, and one Church may contain us.  
Then Peace, Truth and Plenty, our Kingdom will crown,  
And all Popish Plots and their Plotters shall down.    

Reprinted, Corrected, Revised, and Enlarged, by the Author.