popular Letter from Legorn pamphlets which appeared that year. The characters pursue the absconded Trueman (i.e., L'Estrange) aboard a Mahometan (i.e., Papist) ship and lure him ashore in order to seek revenge for their recent humiliation at his hands. The dialogue contains four pages of unimaginative abuse of Trueman which culminates in his drubbing by Citt and Bumpkin. Largely scatological, this uninspired attack upon L'Estrange does not strike a single telling blow against Citt and Bumpkin.

In fact, Citt and Bumpkin enjoyed unqualified success despite the best efforts of its various detractors. And its popularity was well deserved. Appearing just when the unrest over petitioning was at its height, Citt and Bumpkin captured the interest and imagination of the public with its cogent argument and witty satire.

NOTES

Text

The text of Citt and Bumpkin here reprinted is the copy in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

CITT

AND

BUMPKIN.

IN A

DIALOGUE

OVER

A Pot of Ale,

CONCERNING

MATTERS

OF

RELIGION

AND

GOVERNMENT.

LONDON,

Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls

Church-yard, 1680.

Citt and Bumkin,

In a DIALOGUE, &c.

Citt. So that you would know, First, how we manag'd the Petition; and Secondly, how it came to miscarry.

Bum. Those are the two Points, Citt, but first take off your Pot, and then tell your Story; you shall have mine afterward.

Citt. There was no way, you must know, to carry the business clear, without getting a Vote of Common-Council for the Petition; and so making it an Act of the City: And in order to this End, we planted our Committees every where up and down, from Algate to Temple-barr, at convenient distances; some few of them in Taverns but most at Coffee-houses; as less liable to suspition. Now we did not call these Meetings, Committees, but Clubs; and there we had all Freedom both for Privacy and Debate: while the Borough of Southwark, Westminster, and the Suburbs, proceeded according to our Method.

Bum. And what were these Committees now to do?

Citt. Their Commission was to procure Subscriptions, to justify the Right of Petitioning, and to gain Intelligence: And then every Committee had one man at least in it that wrote short-hand.

Bum. Well, and what was he to do?

Citt. It was his part to go smoking up and down from One Company to another, to see who was for us, and who against us: and to take Notes of what people said of the Plot, or of the Kings Witnesses, or against this way of Petitioning.

Bum. But how came those Committees (as ye call 'um) by their Commissions?

Citt. For that, let me tell you, we had two Grand Committees, that adjourn'd from place to place, as they saw occasion: But they met most commonly at Two Coffee-houses; the One near Guild-Hall, the Other in the Strand; for you must take notice that we went on, hand in hand with our Neighbours in the Main Design.

Bum. But you do not tell me yet who set up the Other Committees.

Citt. These two Grand Committees, I tell you, nominated and appointed the Sub-Committees, gave them their Orders, and received their Reports: It was their Office moreover to digest Discoveries, and Informations; to instruct Articles, improve Accusations, manage Controversies, defray the charge of Intelligencers, and Gatherers of hands, to dispose of