The Character of a Trimmer,
HAng out your
Cloth, and let the
Trumpet sound,
Here's such a Beast as
Africk never own'd.
A
twisted Brute, the
Satyr in the
Story,
That blows up the
Whig-Heat and cools the
Tory.
A State
Hermaphrodite, whose doubtful
Lust
Salutes all
Parties with an equal
Gust.
Like
Iseland-Shocks, he seems two Natures joyn'd,
Savage before, and all
Betrimm'd behind:
And the well tutor'd
Currs like him will strain;
Come over for the
KING, and back again.
'Tis such a
Sphinx, the Devil can't unriddle,
A Human
Schism upward from the middle,
And split again below, which gives us light
To the sole
Point that can all Sects unite.
Thus did the fam'd
Dutch-double-Monster Trimm,
And that cleft Soul's Pythagoriz'd in him.
Noah (whom for the sake of
Wine we love)
Sav'd
Natures breed by
Mandate from above,
But all the learned
Sages doe agree
He kept his Ark from
Mules and
Leopards free,
All such mix'd
Animals he scorn'd to float,
And would not save one
Trimmer in his
Boat.
Beasts feed on
Beasts, and
Fishes Fish devour,
And o're weak
Birds the Winged
Tyrants tour;
But this same
Land-Fish with his
Feather'd-Finns
Commits both
Air, and
Earth, and
Water-Sins,
Complies with those that
Fly and
Walk and
Dive,
But fastens only upon those that
Thrive.
In short, his only
Art is to inveagle,
Flatter the
Popular-Power as well as
Regal,
Like a State
Janus, or a Church
Spread-Eagle.
London: Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhil, 1683.