The Cuckoo's-nest AT Westminster, OR THE PARLIAMENT between the two LADYBIRDS, Quean Fairfax, and Lady Cromwell, concerning Negotiations of ESTATE, and their several Interests in the Kingdom; sadly bemoaning the Fate of their Deer and ab-hor'ed HUSBANDS.  
Who buys a Cuckoes-Nest, hatched in an Air  
That's not far distant from Westminste●-Fayre?  
The Hedge-sparrow that fed her another's day,  
Is (for her kindness) now become her Prey;  
O 'tis a precious BIRD, were't in a Cage,  
'Twould please both King, and People; cure this Age  
That surfeits with Rebellion, and can have  
No Help to keep her from Destructions Grave.  
She Cuckoos Treasons, Strifes; causes great Stir,  
But must pack hence 'twixt this and Midsummer:  
Though Goattam hedge her in with Pikes and Gun  
She shall not scape us, though she flies, or runs;  
For all the Birds with one consent agree,  
To springe her for her base Disloyalty.  
June 15th. BY Mercurius Melancholicus:  
Printed in Cuckoo-time, in a Hollow-tree. 1648.   

The Cuckoo's-nest AT Westminster.  
WHo is it amongst us that hath not heard these Cuckoos at Westminster? an Airy of such Ominous Owly Birds, that the like was never before seen in this Kingdom; that have kept a great cackling, and been long and Close sitters, but have hatched nothing but Cockatrice eggs, vile Treasons, addle Ordinances and the like to ensnare and enslave a freeborn People, making of them no better than Hedge-Sparrows, to nurse up (with their wealth) the Bastard Isse of their Pernicious Plots against King, Church and Kingdom; the Common-People, that willingly fed them, and lent them not only Hands, but Lives and Estates, being now (for their great kindness) justly become a Prey to the Ravenous and griping Claws of these Cannibal Cuckoos (the Parliament and Army) that now are devouring them, (after they have Pulled and Polled them to the bare skins) are now feeding upon their flesh, and picking their very bones, Killing, Destroying, and Robbing them: and if this be not enough to provoke the People to Curse these unnatural Vipers, and to loathe all future Parliaments to the world's end, I have lost my scenses; none will fear them, none will love them, none will obey them, all will hate them, all will despise them, all fight against them.  
Let us now consider what manner of Birds these be: and we shall find them not Kuck●es only, but other birds of Prey, as Vultures, Harpies, Puttocks, Ostriches, Owls, Martyns, D●wes and such like Ominous and unclean Birds that with their huge Bodies and baleful Wings, have obscured our King; our Peace; our Happiness, and hid all joy and comfort from us; these are all Birds of a Feather, that sit in Counsel and conspire together against the Eagle, the Phoenix, the Turkey, the Pea-hin, the Turtle, the Swan, the Canary, and sweet-singing Nighting●●ll, who being all too credulous to believe the feigned babble of these Sat- Decoys, are now covered and entangled in their Nets caught in their Pitfalls, and all their goods and feathers pulled from them by Lime-twigg-Ordinances.  
The●e Birds of Prey flock together at Westminster; and have for almost Eight years roosted themselves there, even till they had defiled their very Nests, and were forced to fly abroad till they were cleansed and yet sit brooding, and hatching their pernicious Plots and Treasons, Cockatrice Ordinances, bald buzzardly Votes, contradicting Orders, and changeling Declarations, both against the Laws of Nature, Reason, Conscience and Religion, and have Usurped all Power and Authority from and over their Lawful and undoubted Sovereign, doing their utmost to deprive both him and his Posterity of their Hereditary Fights and Successions▪ denying to acknowledge him for their Head, forbidding Addresses to be made unto Him▪ or Messages to be received from Him, by which they have changed and abandoned the Nationall and Fundamental Laws of the Land (the only ligaments and sinews of a Kingdom) being an Act▪ not only of the highest Treason that can be; but a Crime that divests them of all their Privileges, un-Parliaments them, and makes them all guilty of the abhorred sin of Perjury in breaking Protestations, Oaths and Covenants, and liable to a just Censure, and conviction of Theft, Treason & Rebellion; for which they can not otherwise satisfy the King, Laws or People, but by the tribute of their Roundheads; too slight a Recompense for such abhorred and Traitorous Crimes.  
Therefore the People may now see (without spectacles) how grossly they been disceived, and juggled out of their Lives and Estates; 'tis true the Parliament at the first (convened by Royal authority) was a lawful and (for aught I know) a conscienscious Parliament, and the whole Body (being aptly and completely united together in the Members, without foreable dislocation, or false Election) was questioness the highest indicature in, this Kingdom; But since Edge-hill Fight, this juncto (or Pretended Parliament, acting in open Hostility, & fight against their King.) abandoning their Head are no more a Parliament, but the Body of a Parliament (without a head) a monster, a very Cuckoos-nest▪ a combined medley o● Traitors and Rebels, and far different from the Nature of a Parliament, (by reason of their Luciferian Pride, to be fling down to hell) and to be diserted by all Loyal Subjects, as disjointed, severed and mangled in its members, (as deficient as their then General) uncapable of any just Act▪ but wading on in blood (by an usurped, Treasonous, Tyrannical and overawing Power, having no dirivation from the King, but their own▪ lusts,) therefore not Subject whatsoever hath any warrant (neither can they bind▪ the Conscience of any) to yemeld either Active or Passive obedience to any Act or Ordinance, because they illegally Act, contrary to all Precedents of former Parliaments, and Parliamentary Power, and are no longer the visible Representatives of the Body Politic, and so must necessarily be guilty of all the innocent blood shed these 6▪ years in this Kingdom, and still shedding in most Counties in England, these Rebels (being so fleshed in Blo●d & Rapine,) thy are resolved to go throughstitch in their abhorred Rebellion (though they ruin 3. Kingdom's) by their inhuman butcheries, being rewarded with a large sum for shedding blood in the City, encouraged & rewarded for murdering the S●rey-Petitioners, the Kentish and Essex men, for delivering (in a legal way) Petitions for redress of their several aggrievances: what can any rational man think, but that they defer to murder their King▪ until such time as they have first murdered and destroyed all his Loyal Subjects.  
That when the Army could not have an opportunity to plunder the City, (as nothing so sure as they intended it) they were hired by Martin, Mildmay, Vein, and the rest of that Nest to pick a Quarrel with the Country, that they might Plunder and unundoe them (when then they had miss of their aim in the City) as now they do in Essex, Kent, and all the Kingdom over▪ Killing▪ Plundering, and triumphing over all they are able to Conquer▪ so that between both Parties (Royalists and Roundheads, as between the good and bad thief,) the poor Country must be crucified.  
The chief fomentors that are Regicides, and most active in our destruction in the upper House, are the Lord Say, Pembroke, Manchester, Kent, Warwick, Denbigh, Stamford, Wharton, Grey, these always Cuckoo forth one Tune, no K●ng, no King; in the lower House are a nest of as evil birds, as ever hatched at Tyburn, and these are Lenthall, Mildmay, Scot, chaloner, Martin, Weaver, Vein, Corbet, Cromwell, that cannot endure to hear the King so much as named in the House; in the Synod of time-serving Priest-byters, there are Martial, Burgess, Strong, Sedgwick, Vines, Love, Whittaker, Nye, that draw altogether in one yoke, against Monarchy, these teach Rebellion in stead of Divinity, more Lies then Truth, more Blasphemy then sound Doctrine, and will have no King to reign over them, except he be of the Royal Proginy of Mrs. Parliament, or the Child of Reformation: in the Army there are another nest of Birds, but not of the same feather, and these be the Elect forsooth, the Precious babes that are hail fellow with God Almighty, see strange Visions, and are possessed with unerring spirits, that whatsoever they do, (though never so impious and wicked,) is lawful; and these are Peter's, del, Erbury, Knowles, Goodwin, Symson, etc. The first rank of these are Oxen, and the latter Asses, which the Parliament yoke in their Blow together, because they are forbidden it in the old Law, and by that means avoid Idolatry; but their Drivers are more charitable than these Beasts, for they but kill our bodies, and rob us of our goods, but these Wolvish cattles slay our souls, take away our good Names▪ judge us, and condemn us to Hell; these are the charitable Saints, that have the mark of their brother Cain in their foreheads, Vagabonds that have no abiding places, but are hurried with every wind from one uncertainty to another, and are constant in nothing but mischief; these are the running Plague-sores that infect the whole Nation, and cause swell and Rise in the Body of the Commonwealth; these are those that sow discord among brethren, and though (like Samsons Foxes) they are tied tail to tail, yet they carry a Firebrand amongst them that burns up both Church and State in the mercyless and consuming flames of an unnatural and bloody war; these are the disturbers of our Israel, and hinderers of our Peace; old Foxes, & wild Boars that root up our Vineyards, feeding themselves fat on the Ruins of others; these, in stead of expelling out Papacy (but one Faction) have brought in five hundred damnable Sects, and set them a●l to devour Episcopacy, to bring in blessed Liberty to pull down Monarchy, and set up Aristocracy, by which means they have advanced their Hypocritical, Diabolical and pernicious Treasons to this very day: Are not these Cuckoos worthy of a Cage? surely they be: But I shall leave this Nest of Fow●e Birds to the People's ordering, having told them where it is, only desiring all Loyal People to secure their money from them, to provide Arms for their own defence, and rather choose to die like men, then live like slaves. But I will in stead of an Epilogue, give you a Dialogue to cure your Melancholy▪  
The high Tosse, black Tom is dead,  
come aloft jackadandy,  
Sir Samuel Luke shall be General,  
and that's as good as can be.   

POSTSCRIPT.  Enter Queen FAIRFAX and Madam CROMWELL. Qu. Fairfax. 
CHeer up Madam, he is not dead, he is reserved for another end, these wicked Malignants reported as much of my Noll, but I hope it is otherwise; yet the profane writ an Epitstaff (as I think they call it) and abused him most abominably, as they will do me, or you, or any of the Faithful Saints, if we but thrive by our Occupations in our Husband's absence, if we but deck our bodies with the Jewels gained from the wicked, they point at us, and say, Those are Plunder; but though Righteous must undergo the scoffs of the wicked; but let them scoff on, I thank my Maker, we lived before these holy Wars were thought on, in the thriving Profession of Brewing, and could of my veils of grains and Yeast wear my silk gown, and gold and silver Lace too, as well as the proudest Mynx of them all; I am not ashamed of my Profession Madam.  Qu. Fair. 
Pray Mrs. Cromwell tell not me of Gowns or lace, nor no such toys? Tell me of Crowns, Sceptres, Kingdoms, Royal Robes; and if my Tom but recovers, and thrives in his enterprise, I will not say Pish to be Queen of England; I misdoubt nothing, if we can but keep the wicked from fetching Nabuchadnezzar home from Grass in the Isle of Wight; well, well, my Tom is worth a thousand of him; and has a more kingly Countenance; He has such an innocent face, and a harmless look, as if he were born to be Emperor over the Saints.  Mrs. Crom. 
And is not Noll Cromwell's Wife as likely a Woman to be Queen of England, as you? Yes I warrant you is she; and that you shall know, if my Husband were but once come out of Wales; 'tis he that has done the Work; the Conquest belongs to him; besides your husband is counted a Fool, & wants Wit to Reign; every boy scoffs at him: my Noll has a Head-piece, a face of brass, (full of Majesty) and a Nose will light the wool Kingdom to walk after-him; I say he will grace a Crown, being naturally adorned with Diamonds and Rubies already; And for myself (though I say it) I have a Person as fit for a Queen as another.  Q. Fair. 
Thou a Queen; thou a Quean? Udssutt Minion, hold your clack from prating Treason against me, or I'll make Mrs. Parliament lay her Ten Commandments upon thee? thou a Queen, a Brewer's Wife a Queen; that Kingdom must need be full of Drunkards, when the King is a Brewer? My Tom is Nobly descended; and no base Mechanic.  Mrs. Crom. 
Mechanic? Mechanic in thy face; thou'rt a whore to call me Mechanic: I am no more Mechanic than thyself; Marry come up mother Damnable; jone Yggly; Must you be Queen? yes you shall; Queen of Puddle-D●ck, or Billingsgate, that is fittest for thee: My Noll has won the Kingdom, and he shall wear it in despite of such a Trollup as thou ar●▪ Marry come up here, Mistress Wagg-tayle?  Enter a Servant running. Sir. 
O Madam, cease your contention, and provide for your safeties▪ both your Husbands are killed and all their Forces pu● to the Sword; all the People crying like mad,  
Long Live King CHARLES.  Omnes. 

We hope 'tis false; O whether shall we fly  
Lest Vengeance overtake our … y?   
FINIS.