The Lord HENRY CROMWELL'S SPEECH IN THE HOUSE.  Ignavum fucos pecus à praecepibus arcent. 
 woodcut 
Westminster  
Dublin    

The Lord HENRY CROMWELL'S SPEECH in the HOUSE.  
RIght Honourable Court of Parliament, I am here come before you, and first I beg Your pardon that I call ye so, for I profess, I have been so used to Titles, that I can hardly yet leave them off; I confess your honour is my dishonour: but why should I be ashamed of this abatement of my grandeur, when I find others that have suffered in the same kind? I see here Sydenham, Lambert, and many more that were once Flanders-laced with the Titles of Lords, who are now again content to be but plain Colonels, and may thank God for that too: Come my Masters, a Colonel's pay is better than nothing; I do not envy Pride for dying a Lord, for life's sweet, though it be enjoyed in a mean condition, especially to men that are not much troubled with that thing called Courage and a high Spirit, such as my Brother and I are: I remember you once made a Selfdenying Ordinance, believe it 'twas a Christian Ordinance▪ and I think I have been as true a Proselyte to it, as any of your Subjects in England. But some will object to me, that I became so by constraint: Alas! who can but be a Christian, when he hath not Red-coats enough about him to make him appear otherwise? When Dionysius was victorious he was a Tyrant, when he lost his Army he was content to be a Pedagogue; 'tis true, I have not Latin enough to be as he was, but I thank God my Father brought me up to read my Testament, so that let the worst come to the worst, I shall be able to teach Children their Primers. And now I am put in mind of my Father, I must tell ye, he had as much wit as any of ye all, and more; but let that pass, for you had the worst on't; and we his Children have as much too little; but let that pass, for we have the worst on't. The worst on't did I say? Alas I would fain be humble, but I have a kind of rebellious Spirit within me, which you Gentlemen I hope will take an occasion to tame. When Ahab threw himself at his Victor's feet, he came with a rope about his neck, but I desire you to excuse me that I did not do so, knowing, that if it were a sin to tempt God, it would be a greater to tempt his Saints with such inconveniency, being less able to resist. But what a strange grief doth now surprise me! where are my Father's tears? yet what will they avail me, for he had so often deceived you with his, that 'tis impossible I should ever entrap you with mine. I was lately Lord Deputy of Ireland, but now poor, miserable, dejected, rejected, disrespected, unprotected Harry Cromwell; But 'tis no matter, since you have done it, whom I ought to flatter, lest a worse thing befall me; I had as good say so, as that you should think so; For I know you will never believe any Son of my Father to be real. Alas the people would think us Bastards, I mean my Brother and I, were we not like our Father in something. And indeed, in what could he make us more like him, than in dissimulation, of which he was so great a Master. But to say truth, you may well enough bear with my flattering of you, it being only like that of a Child's colloguing to save his breech, not that my designs did fly high, or that I use it as an engine to supplant you as my Father: God knows you know I have neither wit nor courage for such an enterprise. Gentlemen, they say you have an Oath to give me, pray let me see't, for I'll take it though it were as long as a Tailor's Bill, nay though there were nothing but the word constant in it. 'Tis a word which I do very much prize; For had not you been constant to your principles for six years together while ye were in Babylon, you had never sat here again; and had not my Father's friends been more constant to you than to us, our condition had not been as ' 'tis. I cannot say you are like the Devil, for it was my Father that mounted me so high upon the pinnacle of Fortune's Temple; but sure I am you are tempters great enough, for only you could have made me thus fall down and worship. The Players have a Play, where they bring in a Tinker, and make him believe himself a Lord, and when they had satisfied their humour, they made him a plain Tinker again; Gentlemen, but that this was a great while ago, I should have thought this Play had been made of me: for if ever two cases were alike, 'tis the Tinkers and Mine. But well far my Father's Soul, for though men say he had a Copper Nose, he was no Tinker, no Dreamer, for his Name still lives. Me thinks I hear 'em already crying, thirty year hence at Bartholomew Fair, Step in and see the Life and Death of brave Cromwell. Me thinks I see him with a velvet crag about his shoulders, and a little pasboard hat on his head riding a rittup a tittup to his Parliament house, and a man with a Bay leaf in his mo●th crying in his behalf By the Living God I will dissolve 'em, which makes the Porter's cry, O brave Englishman. Then the Devil carries him away in a tempest, which makes the Nurses squeak, and the Children cry. But alas I cannot hope for any such Monuments of my fame; Will ever my Face hang out at Temple Bar? will ever my picture be thought worthy to be cut out in Satin by Schoo● boys, and be hanged up in Alehouses to inspire Ballad singers. 'Tis true, we had a pitiful Poet belonged to our Family; but he can't write Panegyrics, unless he be well fed; Besides they say bad Poets are great Liars; and indeed I find him so, for he told me I was Illustrissimus and Excellentissimus, and I do not know what myself: But I see now they did but flatter me; For had I been so indeed, I should not have been cringing here now. But Gentlemen, do not think that I am such a substantive Fool as to stand altogether by myself; I have a Yoke Fellow, even my Elder Brother. Yet Gentlemen, give me leave to tell ye, that every Richard is not a Ceur de lion; and Henry of Windsor you know lost what Henry of Monmouth left him; So ye see there are Precedents of those that have lost, as well as of those that have got ten Kingdoms, and why may not I lose Ireland, as well as my namesake lost France, I am sure I thought myself as good a man as he, when I was Lord Duputy. I remember when we were boys, my Brother and I loved Porridge exceeding well, a good year on't, I think they that do so are all like Lycurgus lapping hound, of the wrong breed. The Anabaptists, 'tis true, told me, that the Saints should inherit the Earth, and that I was a man of sin, and therefore must down; I like an unbeliever as I was, told them that Christ's Kingdom was not of this World; but they replied, Nay verily but it was, and now I plainly find who was in the wrong; But my comfort is, my Brother was as much mistaken: For the Ministers told him that Nimrod was a greater Hunter, and ye know he was a very great Monarch; now thought he, I am a very great Hunter, therefore I must be a very great Monarch; but he was clearly mistaken, and it appears that there was a lying Spirit in the mouths of his Prophets. But Lord, what a coil the women keep at home. My Mother instead of welcomming me home, cried out, Oh ye base bastardly Coward, have you not done finely thus to make yourself and me the soorn of Nations! Oh pitiful Brothers, cries my Sister Rich, I might have married another Lord, but for you, that have undone me and all your Family. And indeed they made such a din in my ears with bewailing the loss of their Lady-Rockers gilt Coaches, gentlemen Ushers, hundred pound Whisks, and such kind of worldly trinkets, that I was almost mazed with the noise. But said I to my Mother, Peace, Mother, peace, why cannot you be content to retire from greatness to a private life, as well as Dioclesian, Charles the fifth, and my Brother and I? To my Sister Rich quoth I, Pray take not so much pepper in the nose, your condition does not require it. Have you forgot all the godly Sermons of Mr. Sterry, and Mr. Lockier concerning the world's vanity? At this they cried out all together Give us our Honours, or else we die. But I hope Gentlemen, you will stop their mouths, since I cannot. My Mother thought to have kept a Court at Soerset-house; But you have done well to sell it, that so that great Temptation may be taken out of her sight; yet truly Gentlemen I can tell ye, they bring a very good excuse for their Pride: For they say that God was angry with the Children of Israel for seeking to return to their Garlic and Onions, and they are loath to be guilty of that Sin. Now Gentlemen, that I may wind up my bottom (though I think there be here among you some who have been of the trade, that can do it better than I can.) First I shall speak to you by way of Consolation, to assure you of Ireland, for as Fleetwood, Desborough, and Sydenham, snuffed out Britain's great Christmas Candle, which was my Brother, even so did Miles Corbet, Coot, and the rest of the privy Council extinguish the flaming Torch of Ireland, which was myself. They say there are Comets, I think we were Comets, for we made a great blaze in the World for a time, but the matter that fed us dying, we ●oon vanished. Truly Gentlemen, I left Ireland quiet, and there's good reason for it, for who do you think will hazard themselves for two such drones as my Brother and I? Next, I shall speak to you by way of Exhortation, that is to exhort ye, and I shall desire you to take a Fool's Counsel, as the Proverb is, for once, that is, to sit here as long as you can; 'tis a sweet thing to ride upon the shoulders of a Nation; To this end, take heed of your good friend Mr. Lambert; for it concerns you, being the— end of a Parliament to have a care of coming under the lash; give your Friend's life; hang up your Enemies; grow rich; and let your obedient Servant go home into the Country,  
Where I like Hermite poor in pensive place obscure,  
Do mean to spend my days of endless doubt,  
To wayl such woes as time cannot recure,  
Where none but you shall ever find me out.  
And at my Gates despair shall linger still,  
To let in death when you shall please ●o kill.  
FINIS