This was apparently written as a parody on the Brewer, in Pills to purge
Melancholy, 1682. The original was too complimentary to Oliver Cromwell,
asserted by the Royalists to have been a brewer in early life, to suit
the taste of the Cavaliers, and hence the alteration made in it. Such
compliments as the following must have proceeded from a writer of the
opposite party.
Some Christian kings began to quake,
And said With the brewer no quarrel we’ll make,
We’ll let him alone; as he brews let him bake;
Which nobody can deny.
He had a strong and a very stout heart,
And thought to be made an Emperor for’t,
* * * * *
Which nobody can deny.
A BREWER may be a burgess grave,
And carry the matter so fine and so brave,
That he the better may play the knave,
Which nobody can deny.
A brewer may put on a Nabal face,
And march to the wars with such a grace
That he may get a captain’s place;
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer may speak so wondrous well
That he may rise (strange things to tell),
And so be made a colonel;
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer may make his foes to flee,
And rise his fortunes, so that he
Lieutenant-general may be;
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer may be all in all,
And raise his powers, both great and small,
That he may be a lord general;
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer may be like a fox in a cub,
And teach a lecture out of a tub,
And give the wicked world a rub;
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer, by’s excise and rate,
Will promise his army he knows what,
And set upon the college-gate;
Which nobody, etc.
Methinks I hear one say to me,
Pray why may not a brewer be
Lord Chancellor o’ the University?
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer may be as bold as Hector,
When as he had drank his cup o’ Nectar,
And a brewer may be a Lord Protector;
Which nobody, etc.
Now here remains the strangest thing,
How this brewer about his liquor did bring
To be an emperor or a king;
Which nobody, etc.
A brewer may do what he will,
And rob the Church and State, to sell
His soul unto the devil in hell;
Which nobody, etc.