1.
Undone, undone the lawyers are;
they wander about the town,
And cannot find the way to Westminster,
now Charing Cross is down;
At the end of the Strand, they make a stand,
swearing they are at a loss,
And chaffing, say, ‘that’s not the way’,
they must go by Charing Cross.
2.
The Parliament to vote it down
conceivèd* it verȳ fitting
For fear it should fall and kill ’em all
i’th’ House as they were sitting;
They were informed ’t had such a plot,
which made ’em so hard-hearted
To give express command, it
should be taken down and carted.
3.
Men talk of plots, this might have been wȯrse,
for anȳ thing I know,
Than that Tomkins and Chaloner
was hanged for long ago;
But as our Parliament from that
themselves strangelȳ defended,
So still they discover plots
before they be intended.
4.
For ne͝ither man, woman nor child
will say, I’m confident,
They ever heard it speak ōne wȯrd
against the Parliament;
’T had letters about it, some says,
or else it had been freed;
’Fore God I’ll take my oath
that it could ne͝ither write nor read.
5.
The committee sa͞id, verilȳ,
to poperȳ ’twas bent;
For aught I know, it might be so,
for to church it never went;
What with excise, and other loss,
the kingdom doth begin
To think you’ll leave ’em ne’er a cross
without door nor within.
6.
Methinks the common council should
of it have taken pitȳ,
’Cause, good old cross, it always stood
so stronglȳ to the citȳ;
Since crosses you so much disdain,
faith, if I were as you,
For fear the King should rule again,
I’d pull down Tyburn too.
* For an explanation of the marks added to the letters, see Linguistic notes: English.