MERCURIUS URBANICUS  
OR, news from LONDON and WESTMINSTER, and other Parts.  
From Tuesday, May 2. to Tuesday, May 9. 1648.  

The Citizens their chains advance,  
To keep king Thomas out;  
I hope they will provide some Ropes  
To hang him, and his Rout.   

King cronwell into Wales is gone  
To deal his angry blows:  
But valiant Poyer and his Boyes,  
Will cuff his copper-nose.   

The Essex-Lyons Roaring came,  
With such Majestick-power;  
They made the Senate stink for fear,  
They would their bones devour.   

The Rebell-States by juggling tricks  
This Kingdom did undo;  
And now at last will run away,  
And cheat the gallows too.   Non est mortal quod opto. 
PRINTED 1648.   

MERCURIUS URBANICUS.  
room for another mercury, one of Joves own Messengers sent from his royal palace Olympus, with a Whip in his hand in stead of a Caduceus, to jirke the State-Rebells at Westminster, and brand them with their own deserved infamy, which may appear in delible Characters to all succeeding ages: I hope I need no Apollogy to excuse my intrusion; for there can never bee too many satires( noe not if all the furies in hell should come) to lash them for their most Pernicious & most Rebellious Actions. And if the rest of the Mercuries will admit me into their fraternity, to make up a Competent number, wee'll sit and vote Treason with as much confidence against the two Houses; as they do against their Lord and sovereign: But I think they have pretty well left that now, since they disgorged, themselves of their late Declaration wherein they vented so many notorious false and abusive scandals against his Majesty, as none but the devil( the Father of lies) or the House of Commons could have invented, and with such impudence have published against so excellent and so gracious a Prince: But certainly that Declaration was forged in Hell, whereof all the Members are fire-brands; And shortly I hope will adjourn thither, where I wish they may bee a Parliament everlasting; but if they abuse the devil and his Imps, as they have his Majesty and the whole kingdom; they will soon make him forsake his infernal Dominions, and leave them to reign with as much Tyranny, over the damned there, as they have done over their Brethren and Fellow-Subjects here.  
I do admire the Common-Wealth will give nourishment any longer to these Gormandizing caterpillars who have out of their hungry zeal almost devoured the whole kingdom, so that wee may cry out with the Prophet; The zeal of the Houses hath even eaten us up; and yet their bottomless maws are not half full, & the more to augment this distressed Kingdoms miseries they have hatch't a Company of ravenous Kites to pick out the kingdoms eyes; London hath had sufficient experience of the insolencye of these base Mechannicks, King, Copper-nose and his Fellowes; what secret ways and stratagems they continually invent and daily put in execution to enslave this honourable City.  

But er'e their hopes shall take effect, I hope  
To see their Roguships choked in a Rope.   
What is the meaning( think you) of their approach so near the City, their fortifying of the Tower, White-Hall, and other places about the City? why nothing but only to give the great tax-bearing Cuckolds now and then a visit, and catch 'em by the money; or perhaps to entreat the Hackney-Asses that they may ride them one Journey more down to the Scotts, to prevent Jockeys coming into England for all our goods.  
But the Citizens have done very wisely of late, by the advice of their grand coxcomb Warner and the Common Cuckolds of the City; they have petitioned their Lords and Masters that there may bee a faire Correspondency kept between Knaves and fools and that they may have their Posts and chains set up again, and then as in duty bound they shall pray &c. sure Alderman Shitbreech moulded up this Petition out of some of the Fragments which were left in his Worships breeches when he made the learned speech in the house of Commons to have their Privies emptied; for had there been but one wise man amongst them, they would never have begged such Trifles; and suffer the main strength of the City( the Tower) to bee under the Command of those who daily wait to be their destruction; oh how sweet would a little of the Cities plunder bee, the Souldiers have a longing desire to taste; pray if there bee any courtesy among Cuckolds let them make one meal amongst you,( the Parliament has made many) perhaps they may bee so kind as to leave your worships some shoeing horns in requital to pull on your night-Caps withall.  
So ho Oliver! whither away so fast; pray stay a little, I think you are angry, you look as if you were, you are very read about the beak; oh me! valiant Poyer hath most lamentably basted fleming and his Fellow Rebells in Wales, nay and hath sent most of them to the devil too, where you yourself must bee er'e long; And that's the matter you are in such hast now; you have a mind to taste some of the same sauce: never fear but you shall bee gallantly entertained by the valiant colonel, he hath one bit in powder for you too: come never make much ado about your Artillery: Poyer dares meet you in the field on equal terms, but that he fears you carry so much fire in your face you will blow up his Magazine with your nose; however carry it along with you, it may serve to light you in your way upon the Welsh-mountaines, but take heed you do not set the towns on fire with it as you pass thorough them; me thinks I hear what a Courteous farewell the Citizens gave you at your departure, they are glad you are got well out of the town, but they hope you will be hanged ere you come in again: if there were any goodness in you, you would have taken black Tom with you too, it were better then to let him stay here to be hanged: for you have played the Devills so long that the whole kingdom is weary of you, the earth groans with the burden of such unmerciful Tyrants: but the Countreys are resolved they'll endure it no longer; if you will not settle his Majesty in Honour and Safety, they will; and if you will not ease them of their intolerable burdens, they will ease themselves the Essex lions have an intent to devour you, I see by their looks they have a good stomach to you; they are resolved you shall cicatrise no longer.  
Why how now countrymen, what's the matter? What! Come to town with a Petition: Pray how come you to bee so sensible of your sufferings? who whipped your eyes for you, that you begin to see how basely you have been abused: I did think you would have been perpetuall-slaves to those merciless cannibals, and have suffered them to devour you too, as they have done your estates long since: Foh! how the Houses begin to stink, I smell them already, Oh! What a pickle are the poor fools in; Lord what a qualm comes over their stomacks, sure they have taken physic lately; I fear they'l Purge so fast this month of May, they must bee forced to adjourn again shortly to have their Privies emptied once more; What blustering weather is here in the Common-wealth this month? Such storms as I think neither lily nor Booker nor any of the rest of the State-Mountebankes were ware of: Sure the Parliament will not put to Sea in such tempestnous weather, but yet necessity hath no Law: They must trust the mercy of the Seas, who have deserved none from their Prince: But is there no honesty left amongst you, will you never leave juggling? Now you have Cozened the whole kingdom, will you cheat the gallows too at last? Pray stay and take your wages with you, 't were great injustice you should work mischief seven yeeres together for nothing; and venture your necks too, and not wear the halter: If Charity bee grown so could amongst the Citizens, that they will not bestow ropes upon you, I believe the country will, if you dare stay to take them: But since you must needs pack up and bee gone, pray give me leave to bid you and your Tribe Farewell.  

go cursed Rebells, with your ill-got store,  
To some remote and unknown barren Shore,  
Where nought but rav'ning Wolves( like you) may be,  
To bear the burden of your cruelty.  
Let not the son, to you, one cheerful Ray  
Afford; unless upon your hanging-Day;  
Nor yet let Night, your cursed Actions, hid;  
until they bee to all the World descried:  
But let your borrid Treasons, murders, Rapes  
And Perjuries, in most deformed Shapes,  
Affright your guilty souls, till all of you  
Truly Repent; then gallows claim thy due.   
So! now farewell and bee hanged, since wee must part, better here then at the gallows: but good Master Speaker, if it bee your fortune to bee hanged first for you deserved it long ago, though you did never use any honesty in your life, nor could ever afford your neighbours their just due; yet pray use a little at your death, and let the devil have his: and so desire all the rest of your fellow Rebells to do.  

That when your souls do fry in endless; pain;  
Wee may enjoy our royal King again.   
FINIS.