Worth conjoin'd Makes a true Gentleman the rest are Coin'd With such as these an Army should be led ' Specially if i' th' true Religion bred This good Commander which I now describe Is one of that most honourable Tribe He graceth his Employment For 't is not The place that makes Men honourable but 'T is Men that make the place so yet I vow 'T is something hard to find such Persons now To the disgrace black infamy and shame Of such that impudently take the name Of Gentlemen sith their base deeds attest They are as far from such as East from West Then mend your manners live more vertuously Banish all baseness and obscenity Many more Reasons have I to dehort From putting any of the vulgar sort Proud Monsieur Th'other-day or any such Into Command let them be Poor or Rich. Except them as on trial have been found Assiduous Steady Trusty True and Sound Woful experience makes me thus to write But of this matter I 'll no more Endite This true description and character Or property of this brave Man of War And most accomplisht Gentleman whose worth Even his very Enemies sets forth Methinks should raise a vertuous emulation In every generous Spirit in this Nation To imitate him and of him to learn Such things as would them very much adorn But Gentlemen and others are of late Grown so debauched loose degenerate And so bewitched to a vicious brood That few of them will ever come to good Nay they count him an Ass and very Fool That loves or leads his life in Vertues School Therefore to court them to it is but vain For with all Vice their Souls are dy'd in grain But now I think it 's time to make an end And bid Farewell to this my noble friend Only let me tell you when Death is nigh That he hath nothing else to do but die For Death and he so well are reconcil'd That if he chance to meet him in the Field He bids him welcom be it cut or shot If Heaven shall please such measure to allot When like a Cedar he falls to the ground And like a Roman Caesar dies renown'd Whose Worth and Vertues him immortalize And lifts his Commendations to the Skies And in the Book of Honour writes his Name Which ' spite of envy fills the Trump't of Fame Whose Mirmydons with great solemnity Carry him to the Grave where he must ly Which is the bed of Honour and the best Repository wherein he must rest Until his mortal Body rise again Be immortal made and so remain Who needs no carved Tombstone for ostent For his renown's a living Monument Vivit post funera Virtus A LITTLE TOUCH Of the Renowned ARTILLERY Or rather MILITARY Company of London BUT now methinks I hear some question why I Nothing said of the ARTILLERY Nor the Train'd-Bands of London sith they are For exercising Arms without compare At least are so reputed therefore they Of England are the University And nursery for War. But truly Sirs Our heats and fewds and persecuting stirs And other things dis-jointed so my Wits That what I writ before was all by fits Besides I thought they might offended be Should they but find a Venial fault in me Moreover many ly upon the catch And slily for their Neighbours halting watch Therefore I 'll supersede what might be writ My Muse be'ng turn'd old Cato's Proselite However I presume or think I may Without offending them now briefly say A few words of and to them not that I Pretend to any skill and mastery In exercising or in handling Arms Th' ignorance of which attracteth Harms Yet to the skilful they are pleasing Charms Although my Genius carries me oft-times To things that may in me be counted crimes That is to manage many Companies Conjoin'd or parted to fight Enemies By long experience taught yet for all this The best Commander in the World may miss What he would have and that is Victory Which to no Mortal is entail'd say I No 't is the Lord of Hosts that giveth still The day to whom he please and when he will. Artillery-men in many things excel And Train'd-Band Officers do very well In the Theorick part of War they are Proficients in which no pains they spare Or shall I Theoretick-practick write it For both of these amongst them seem united Especially in their several firings when All things are practis'd except killing Men. Give them but Ball and they can do so too Unto their enemies I 'll warrant you In handling Arms thus much I can discern Viz. The Grecian Gods might somewhat of them learn. King Priamus with all his Warlike Sons Would were they here admire these Mirmydons And wish they had been with them to anoy The sturdy Greeks when they besieged Troy. The Spartan Sparks in armour gilt with Gold Pace with these Sons of Thunder could not hold Nor with their Counter-march be able to Ran-counter against what these Men can do The Pyrrhick Dance the Belgick Cavalry Could not out-vy this brave Artillery ' Specially upon a General Day When they appear in Arms and brave Array When divers sorts of firings may be seen And things that nev'r before in use have been Only they seem to want the Spanish Gate ' Cause it would make them to march more in State. Also the Turks erected countenance Which Terrour strikes in Foes when they advance This to observe as often as they meet And march about ' specially in the street However none can take offence at me For writing what I formerly did see But some object that many things are done In exercising which Men ought to shun Because so needless useless dangerous Distracting too being so numerous Therefore in Wars they never can be us'd Hold hold Sir But who ever Gold refus'd When it came freely though his Purse be full From many Dishes you may pick and cull A Dinner yet not burst your belly Sir Except you lay it on with switch and spur Store is no sore you know for 't will not crack Your Pericranium nor yet your back Except you carry all at once Therefore Throw this lazy Objection out the door Because methinks it smells of prejudice And malice to that noble exercise For knowledge is no burthen I am sure But ignorance and envy can endure Nothing that 's gallant brave or honourable Tho' to the publick ne'er so profitable Just like the Dog that in the Manger lay That would himself eat neither Oats or Hay Nor suffer them that would What slaves are these Whose humours none but fools would seek to please I've for the same c. been hated too by those That to all noble things were secret foes All in Commission too However I Have them out-liv'd and all their enmity Artillery-men learn War in peace you know Therefore the fitter in the Wars to go The Roman Majesty and Magnitude The Persian Bravery and altitude Would not disdain to make a stand and view The Martial motions
though with some For fear of offending Hesitation To your renowned self wherein you may Read your own self as I may truly say For 't is a noble subject fit for none But Martial Spirits and for them alone Whereof your kind acceptance Sir will be A favour and encouragement to me May Heaven protect and always on You smile And make you ev'n a Moses to this Isle As it hath already hath begun to do Who â—onours God God will him honour too May all your Foes before you fall and fly And Romish rags be bury'd totally May God direct and guide you Night and day For which no doubt good Protestants shall pray And so shall I my self among the rest In which and all things else I 'll do my best To serve and honour Your Majesty according to my power Tho. Plunket April the 10 th 1689. AN Advertisement TO THE READER I Think it necessary in this place to give the World a short Account of some things relating to my self to avoid surmises and sinister Constructions having now and not till now found a fit opportunity after my Forty five years Obscurity to satisfie Enquirers by giving them the reasons of my so long and voluntary Exile wherein I shall be as brief as possible The Name and Family of the Plunkets are not Irish Originally but descended from the Romans but have been in Ireland almost a thousand years My Father was of the House of Dunsaney in East-Meath and brought up in the Romish Religion until towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when about the age of fourteen years he came off from Popery and became a zealous Protestant and so continued till death and because he was the first of our Name that turn'd Protestant he was therefore extreamly hated by many great Papists and all their Clergy so that they waited an opportunity to do him some mischief one way or other and at last they found one for a little before the Rebellion in 1641 he fell sick and in that his sickness a Popish Physician poison'd him fearing as being a man of a great spirit he might as he would have done by his repute and interest in the Country obstruct their designs thereabouts And the said Physitian confess'd upon his Death-bed that he poison'd him for no other cause but his being a Protestant and that he was put upon it by others And at the beginning of the Rebellion the Papists Plunder'd and burnt our House whereby nine Orphans of us were expos'd to great hardships and miseries as well as many thousands more My Grandfather had an Estate left him by the Lord Dunsaney whose second Son he was but betwixt him and my Father partly by Gaming but mostly by engaging for others all the Estate was gone As soon as I heard being then at Dublin what bloody work the Papists made in the Country by murthering the Protestants I resolved to oppose and fight against them to the utmost of my power and presently Listed my self in Sir Charles Coot's Regiment then sixteen years of Age and continued in the Wars until the Cessation made with the Rebels by the King's Order whereupon about 8000. that fought successfully against the Rebels were sent for by the King to fight for him in England after which they never had success but were always worsted After my Father's death I found I was not only very much slighted and neglected by my Protestant Kindred but hated and threatned by my Popish Kindred for fighting against them c. as I was by other young Rebels therefore to be no longer vext and griev'd with the unkindness of the one and to avoid the danger of the other whose malice I had but too much cause to fear I resolved upon a voluntary Banishment for at least twenty years if I lived so long and away came I with the Army in Colonel Gibson's Regiment in November 1643. Which Army at the Siege of Nantwich were routed by Fairfax the January following where Colonel Monk since Duke of Albemarle with many others were taken and sent up to the Parliament And while I was in those parts a Report being spread abroad which was too true that the King had many thousands of Papists in his Armies and that in one of them were 6000. This as it very much offended me so it begat some thoughts in me of going to the Parliaments side being also informed that they allow'd no Papists in their Army which was true But while I was musing what to do some other Regiments came out of Ireland for the King among which were many of my former Threatners this rais'd in me a firm resolution to List my self in the Parliaments Army which I did soon after and to escape the bloody intentions of those Threatners above said and other such in time to come as also to perplex my most unkind Kindred with a twenty or thirty years silence in which time I vow'd they should neither see me nor hear from me I changed my own name and went by the name of Clark and have hitherto and was in many Fights and Skirmishes in the North of England and at the great Battel on Marston-Moor in July 1644. And when Sir T. Fairfax aforesaid was made General of that Victorious Army call'd the New Model 1645. I Listed my self in his own Regiment of Foot wherein I continued fifteen years during which time divers Officers because they knew not who I was concluded me to be of some base obscure beggarly Parentage for which I have been scorned and traduced by them and others all along and when I saw what great Changes and Alterations were in hand in the beginning of the Year 1660. in reference to things and persons tending to a total subversion of that Interest and Cause which I had so zealously owned and engaged in from first to last I could not in judgment and conscience recede from them or any my former principles by complying either to keep or get a place as many Officers did whereby I should have bespattered my Reputation more dear to me than my life and incurr'd that to me odious name of a Time-server whereupon I threw up my Commission and broke my Sword losing all my Arreers and much Money lent my Company and so retired from all publick matters ever since For it shall never be said That a Plunket was false or guilty of any base unworthy treacherous Action for me from which I have by the Grace of God kept my self clear at all times especially these 29. years last past wherein I have suffered many hard things for my integrity being forced through the malice of Neighbours Mayors Informers c. to change my Dwellings fifteen times in twenty years And as I lost all in Ireland for being a Protestant so I lost all again in England for being a Dissenter But I am still semper idem and resolve to be whilest I live come what will of it And though many hundreds dead and alive know what
and can by poor weak means cast down And break in pieces men of high Renown Yet a wise Conduct is more likely to Gain ground than fools that know not what to do For good Commanders hinder not the day But non-experience often hath and may As I could instance make of many places Where such contracted taunts and great disgraces Yet who are so self-confident as they So ready to traduce what others say So apt to find a fault where there is none And all that Jack in Office might be known But as the shadow on the substance waits And Turtle Doves are follow'd by their Mates So Fame and Honour justly waits upon This valiant worthy tho' much envy'd man. And on all other Worthies like himself But not on any starched upstart elf Nor him whose heart and soul is in his pelf For vertue will shine forth even in the dark Whilest envy to no end does at it bark Honour gain'd honestly and gallantly Can never fade nor vanish totally As will the Glow-worm flushes of some sort That never can deserve a good report And others that creep sneakingly into Favour for which they any thing will do Nay some that have but sometimes turn'd a Spit And here receiv'd a knock and there a bit But complaisential in their words also On every base and pimping Errand go Hoping in time 't would something introduce And so it hath indeed for my Lord Louse And Madam Sly have found him a long time Too faithful unto what they count no crime And therefore study how to gratifie him For nothing now they can nor dare deny him At last they find the favour him to grace With a Lieutenant or a Captains place Whereof the Coxcomb is become so proud That he will jostle ' mongst the noble crowd And Elbow at the Table in such state And saucily to all his betters prate Nay and perhaps at last be made a Knight And then Sir Assinego 's at the height But whosoever shall this fellow mind In few years shall not know where him to find For all is gone and spent and he forgot Whose memory and name shall die and rot And the like fate on others doth attend Who think their day will never have an end Or that their Sun will never set But their Vain hopes shall be rewarded with despair Yea and like the snuff of a Candle go out As if they were but of the Rabble Rout. But vertuous souls have a more noble breath And greatly are bemoaned at their death For such as Honour win by noble deeds Shall bury thousands of those stinking weeds Whose Progeny shall still uphold their name And be recorded in the Book of Fame What can the vertues of their Ancestry Avail such as from vertue seek to fly And every way from them degenerate As many now but they are out of date As worth and merit just rewards do crave So great Ancestors should good Issues have The thing possest is not the thing it seems Tho' otherwise each Ignoramus deems For tho' men by their Ancestors be great Yet if they from their vertues quite retreat What are they good for being the disgrace Of their name family and all the race What tho' from Ancestors we have our names Yet from our vertues do arise our Fames Birth without worth is but a Painted Post Wealth without vertue can of nothing boast The base Brats of ignoble Ancestry To save themselves will quit all honesty As the more men moil in the dirt the more They are defil'd So the more some men pore Into and seek to understand their base Ancestors the more shame flies in their face The longer any men delay the show Of vertue then you may both judge and know They are of base beginnings for you 'll find Such covertly to bear a sordid mind The leaven of their lin'age doth remain Amongst them many Ages to their stain Which is perceived by the wiser sort And others that thereof do make report Like Root like Tree like Tree-Branches too And so like fruit viz. a proud and dirty Crew For can a Swine bring forth a gen'rous Lion Or the base bramble Polyanthemion Or Cannibals beget true Sons of Sion Or can a Crab-Tree bear a noble Pippin Or the Princely Eagle hatch a Dunghill Chichen No no for where there 's noble Ancestry There mostly will be a like Progeny And of this sort our Hero is no doubt Or he could not for Vertue be so stout The end of all whose Actions Honour are Though Honour to assume is not his care As many others do most sneakingly I mean he seeks not Honour but only Seeks to deserve though envy can't abide To hear of it but labours all to hide Titles he knows which many gain by art Are but the Seals and Badges of desert And the rewards of Vertue in this World Which oft upon unworthy Men are hurl'd Experience hath taught me to affirm Which many knowing Persons will confirm That Honour upon base Mechanicks cast Hath ruin'd those entrusted them at last Be'ng nat'rally propense to innovation Division dissention alteration Wilful deceitful proud in Word and Mind Unstable and unconstant as the Wind Here could I gall them with a yerking Rhime But I forbear them till another time Mendico asperius nihil est cum surgit ad altum I say to make Men of a sordid race Commanders or them with high Titles grace Is one way to turn all things upside down And with dire discord fill each Shire and Town Sith then it 's so that Men of base degree Or Rascal breed plac'd in Authority Have upon States and Kingdoms mischief brought And nothing but their advancement sought Therefore were I to raise a Regiment Though to that height my thoughts were never bent I would as near as possible I could Commission none but Gentlemen of old Or ancient Stocks to choose ' cause not so proud Nor insolent as are the latter brood Who ' cause they 've jumped into great Estates They think none good enough to be their Mates Yet of that sort I mean not every spark That gives a Livery Nor such as shark About the Court or Inns of Court nor they That are made poor through base debauchery Nor any scandalous Sir or witty flash That in his word and actions is too rash Nor he that hath the name of a Deceiver Sir Gregory Nonsense or Sir Good-be-never Sir Topsey Turvey that never kept his Word Nor Mr. Maggot-brain that draws his Sword At every petty affront nor such as they As wrong and cheat poor Souldiers of their pay Nor any supercilian in fine Clothes Nor such as rend the Heavens with Hellish Oathes Or any of that humour old or new For few are good of that debauched Crew No no for they may prove as bad as t'other Viz. For you to day to morrow for another But him I call a perfect Gentleman Whose Vertues grace his good Extraction Or in a word 't is Birth and