Clievelandi Vindiciæ, or, Clieveland's genuine poems, orations, epistles, &c. purged from the many false and spurious ones which had usurped his name, and from innumerable errours and corruptions in the true copies : to which are added many never printed before, with an account of the author's life.

An Answer to a Pamphlet written a∣gainst the Lord Digby's Speech, concerning the Death of the Earl of Strafford.

'TIS the wittiest Punishment that the Poets phancied to be in Hell, that one should continually twist a Rope, and an Ass stand by and bite it off. I know not how this Noble Gentleman should ever deserve it, but such is his Fate; for while the Pamphleter strives to tear his Speech, to Ravel this Twist of Eloquence and Judgement, what doth he but make my Lord and himself the Moral of the Fable? The first word in his Penny-libel is omi∣nous for a Duel. The Sand was always the Scene of Quarrelling, and so he calls the Speech. If this be Sand, I shall easily in∣cline to Democritus his Opinion, who thought the World to be compos'd of A∣••oms, and shall be able to render a reason hereafter, why Iupiter, when he was most Oraculous, was called Iupiter Ammon, Iu∣piter of the Sand: but as Thomas Mason says, am I bound to find you Wit and Hi∣story? Why the Sand? The Sand, that is, the Incoherent. You shall never tak a

Pamphleter, one of these Haberdashers of small Wares, without his Videlicets or his Vtpotes. An ingenious Metaphor needs no spokes-man to the Apprehension, but is entertain'd without a pimping Videlicet. A Videlicet is an Hic Canis; it argues a Bungling Writer, as that a Painter. But wherein Incoherent? Because it shows wherein the same Man may both condemn and acquit the same Man. Why, is that such a Riddle? May not I commend you for a Single-soul'd Rythmer, one that can Chime All-in to an Execution, and yet use the Scotch Proverb, and turn your Nose where your Arse was in point of State-policy. Though you have a pretty Faculty in Country-Tom and Cambery-Bess, yet faces about in State-affairs. A diverse Quatenus commends and vilifies, condemns and acquits. But a Pox of all English Lo∣gick. He hath found Idem qua idem some∣where Translated, and that's it which raises all this Dust, disturbs the Sand. Well, grant it be Sand; what becomes on't? Why, Captain Puff will blow it away. My Ad∣versary, I perceive, has eaten Garlick, and wholly relies upon the Valour of his Breath; and indeed I question not the strength of that, I find it sufficiently in the Rankness of his Language. Certainly he

hath a great mind to be painted like Bore∣as in the great Ship, with that ingenious Impress, Sic Flo. But, hark you Gaffer; you that will tear the Speech and blow a∣way the Sand; before you and I part, I shall so prick the Tympany of your Cheeks, and so mince your Pamplet, that the least Sand shall be a Grave sufficient for the biggest piece of it. But, see the Prowess of our Domitian; hee'l kill this Fly him∣self, and not with an Axe, or a Bill of At∣tainder. He scorns to cry Clubs; hee'l not oppugn it with the Votes of the Houses, with the Judges Opinions; nor are we so mad to enter the Lists of such a Compari∣son. But this is but one of his ordinary Solecisms. The Speech must be consider'd as when first made; then the Houses had not Voted; then the Judges had not determin∣ed, and (what's as Material as any thing) the Rabble had not yell'd for Justice and Execution then; and therefore to commit them with this Speech, what were it but to phancy a Prolepsis? to antedate Com∣batants that were not yet in being? so that if any thing add to the strength of the Speech, beside its own Nerves, it is the weakness of the Confuter, not of the Reader. I make no question but your Rea∣der is quit with you for that Abuse. You

say, My Lord steals his Affection; I dare purge you of that Felony: Marry, if you will needs cry Guilty, it cannot amount to above Pety Larceny; so much as may ask the Bauns betwixt your Shoulders and a piece of Pack-thread: for whereas you damn my Lord's Arguments to the Hospi∣tal; I am sure yours stand in need of Bed∣lam, and the wholesom Phlebotomy of a Whip, to fetch the Dog-days out of your Scull; and so, though you stand like Death over the Belfrey, with a great Scythe, com∣paring the Speech to Grass, the Event will disarm you of your Utensil; and in stead of a Scythe for Mowing, give you a Whet∣stone for Lying. Hitherto he hath been Tuning the strings, now he strikes up. Pray you mark the Lesson. Will you see an Argument of this Paper, and indeed a Pa∣per-Argument? Did you ever hear the Changes better rung upon two Bells? I am perswaded the Author would dance well upon the Ropes, he keeps himself so equally poiz'd. Heads and Points; the Argument of the Paper, the Paper-Argu∣ment. Well, score up one in the Column of Quibbles. The Argument that he runs division upon is this: It doth not appear to him by two Testimonies, that the Irish Army was to be brought over to reduce this Kingdom;

Therefore the Earl of Strafford is not guilty of High Treason Now he breaks the neck of this Ergo thus: If three or four other Treasons be objected and prov'd, though they be at a loss in one, this doth not straight e∣vince his Innocence. To this Belief he will draw you (as he says) by a Comparison. Let him put himself in his Geers. Let him play his Tricks of Fast and loose. In the Interim thus I gird up his tedious Quem∣admodum. If one be tyed with three or four Cords, he is not at liberty, though one of them be loos'd, as being still bound with the rest. Even as, Even so. Philip writing to the Spartans, prefac'd every Sentence with If, If, If; they studying their Laconical Brevity, and denying the Contents of the Letter, returned nothing but the same Monasyllable. The Objecti∣on runs in Philip's fashion. If, is the Posti∣lion of every Line; and I know not but the Answer may be as apposite. If three or four Treasons be prov'd; if he be tyed with three or four Cords; but if those Treasons prove but Misdemeanours, if those Cables be but Threads; if Sampson that was bound with them have ••witch'd them in pieces; then I must say your Cords come in very unseasonably▪ unless it be to put you in mind of your Mortality. But he

doubles his Files. Faults in this Paper (he saith) go not alone; that's the Reason he bears the Author company to the end of his Speech; that if there be any Faults, his Answer may match them with Twin-brothers. Though this Reducing the King∣dom by an Irish Army be not prov'd by Re∣tail, yet 'tis Treason in the Lump. Rip but up the bowels of a former Testimony and there you shall find it. His Majesty is absolv'd from all Rules of Government and may do what Power will admit. So ho! whither now? My Task is to justifie the Speech in what it Treats, not to declame the Question at large. This is not to confu••e his Speech, but his Conscience that would not be convicted. I am not tyed to follow you in your Wildgoose chase; yet I am so con∣fiden•• (whether of the strength of the Cause or your Weakness▪ I say not) that I wish you and I might plead it on a Pillory, and he that lost the day pay Ear-rent for us both. But there is danger in following an Ignis Fatuus whither it will lead you, espe∣cially when he makes up at the Throat of Majesty. He sees that Power will admit the use of an Irish Army, or any other which that Power can purchase. A Suspi∣cion which deserves to be answer'd with a Thunderbolt; but 'tis out of fashion;

and I am afraid I shall be laughed at, if I speak any thing in defence of the King: yet (thanks be to God) there's no great need on't. His Majesty's Vertues are his strongest Guard. A King, like a Porcu∣pine, is a living Quiver of Darts; every Beam of Majesty is a Fulmen Terebrans to his Blaspheming Enemies. My Fellow-traveller stept aside a little to give his Brain a Stool, and now is return'd into the Road, His Lordship, he says, multiplies and is fruitful in Absurdities. 'Tis true by an equivocal Generation; for so he begat your Pamphlet, meeting with the putrid Matter of your Invention, as the Sun pro∣duceth Insect Animals. The Absurdity is, he hath no Notion of Subverting the Law Treasonable, but by Force; and here we must score up the second Quibble, for then (he says) This Argument will never subvert the Law, as having no Force. Truly I am of a mind, that if my Antagonist were both to Dispute and Answer himself, he would have the best on't, and that's the Course he takes here. He frames an Ar∣gument where none is intended. His Lordship says he knows no other, nay and there is no other; but he doth not infer the latter from the former, therefore there is no other, because he knows no other;

so that this is a Brat of your own Brain, not drawn from his Lordship's Ignorance (as your scandalous quill foam'd at the mouth) but from your own Impudence; and if it halt (as you say) it confesses its Father, it halts before a Creeple. You do well there∣fore to let Nature work to help your lame Dog over a Stile, to cast it, as you con∣ceive, in a right Frame. There is no way of Subverting the Law but what I know; but I know no way of Subverting the Law but by force. You would be loath a man should say this is no Syllogism; and yet 'tis true. There's no Figure will give it a Te∣nement to hide its head in. I could give you a Remove now and set you upright; but I had rather you should take it asunder, and my Lord and you part Stakes; part Propositions; He the Major, you the Mi∣nor, because in the first you say there is so much Knowledge, in the latter so much Ignorance. You see you are in a Bog; but I will throw my Cloak about you and dance you out; for lo, a most Eloquent Si quis in quest of the Author of our Te∣nent. Who says this? Is it some ancient Iudge? No, I thank you as the Case goes; Or is it one that looks more into the Court than the Inns of Court? I perceive I must count Quibbles as they do Fish; thou art three;

there he bounceth out with his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [A Young Gentleman knows not the Law.] I do not wonder you writ it in other Chara∣cters; for 'tis a most acute Apothegm, (though I say it that should not say it) and such an one as may well beseem the Rump∣end of Licosthenes at the next Impression. But he makes a Transition from Common Law to Common Reason, and he hopes to be scored up for that Quarter-Quibble, but I cannot afford it. If nothing but Force can subvert Law, then Iudges when they pro∣nounce false Iudgments▪ stop lawful Defences, let loose the Prerogative, and all that Rout of Instances which he hath rallied up, do not subvert the Law. Well, to do you a Courtesie, they do not. 'Tis one thing to stop a Pipe, to cut an Aqueduct and di∣vert a Conveyance, and another to spoil a Spring-head. The Law in this Case suf∣fers a Deliquium, but she is not dead. The Subversion of Laws is Root and Branch. A Castle may be dismantled, made unser∣viceable, and yet 'tis not said then to be quite overthrown. When you usurp'd the Chair of Logick and made a false Syllo∣gism, were the Laws of Logick then sub∣verted? No, but Trangress'd; so that if our Author suffer by Injustice (as I hope you are more Historian than Prophet) he

will not involve the Laws in his Ruine. Your Apostrophe to Tressilian is a true Apo∣strophe, for 'tis from the Cause; for will ye introduce a Parity in Offences too? Scan the Cases and you shall find them di∣verse. But give me lieve by the way to admire your Phrase of the Iron Laws. 'Tis a good Argument to me that there is no Alchymy, otherwise the Corruption of so many Judges, by this time had turn'd them into Gold: but my Lord must Dispute a∣gain. Do you carry the Knapsack of his Arguments? My Lord hath a fine time on't, that you should feed him thus with a Spoon? 'Tis thus; The Earl of Straf∣ford's Practices have been as high as any. The Practices of Tressilian have been as high as High Treason. I wonder where you got all this Logick; at Furnival's Inn? But I know the Reason of it, because Plutarch attributes Logick to a Fox, and King Iames maintains Discourse in a Hound, that's it which puts you upon Sillogisms. You would be loath to come short of any of your Fellows. For the words of the Ma∣jor (which are only my Lord's, and which indeed I had as lieve he should justifie as I) you must know they are a Comparison: now Comparisons are betwixt things of the same kind: As high as any, that is, in the

rank of Misdemeanours. The Painter, when his Picture would not sell for a God, made a special Devil of it, and so he vent∣ed it. Though my Lord cannot yield that the Earl of Strafford's Practices should be sublimated into Treason; yet place them in the front of any lower Offences, and it seems he will pass it. This Similitude of mine doth not run of all four, no more must you think of that, As high as any. But to make few words; suppose I should grant you your Conclusion, that the Earl of Strafford's Practices were as high as Treason, yet if they be not specified by Statute for Treason, my Lord doth justly abstain his hand from his Dispatch. You ask how these words should sound in the mouth of a Judge. Truly I have not the measure of your Ears, they are of too large a size for me. I being a Judge hold your Guilt to be as high as Treason, yet having no Law to give me Commission, I'll have no hand in your Sentence: So that sup∣posing all Cases to be like this, I grant you the Assizes would be in vain; the Judges Circuit would be like the wheeling of a Mill, move continually, but never nearer their Journey's end: but when the Law hath provided sufficiently, unless in a Case as this, Extraordinary, the Vanity and

Mockery which you speak of recoils upon him that first discharged them. For your last, where you would have Sir Henry Vane's Oath to be prefer'd before my Lord's Suspicion, I would willingly answer as he did with Meditation; at the first time no∣thing, as much at the second, and at the third Vous avez Sir Henry Vane. You say his Oath gets an addition of Belief from the Speeches before and from the Memo∣rials that day; so that you imply what I dare not say, that it is not full of it self, but wants a Supplement of Credit to gain our Faith. As for the words Recorded whencesoever they had their Venom, it seems they were poyson'd; (for to that, and not to their Pregnancy do I attribute it) that they swell'd into such a bigness, that one Testimony appear'd double: But that you should entitle Mr. Pim to this Mistake, that he should look through a Multiplying Glass in a Case so weighty as that of Trea∣son; the Gentleman's known Integrity saves me the labour of his Defence. So that the Testimonies being but such, though the Charges be many; be the Earl of Straf∣ford as high in his Practices as it pleases my Lord to make him, yet my Lord's Di∣pthong may easily be justified, and the Earl both at once Condemn'd and Sav'd.

Thus I have entreated Patience of my self to Counterpuff your Pamphlet, when by the help of a Penny-worth of Pears, I could (more sutably to your Defects) have confuted you backward. But I did it in hopes that you would muzzle your self hereafter; for though your Teeth be hol∣low and cannot Bite, yet wanting Cloves they may Infect.