§7. "Hay any worke for Cooper?". XVII. The Marprelate Controversy. Vol. 3. Renascence and Reformation. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume III. Renascence and Reformation.

XVII. The Marprelate Controversy.

§ 7. Hay any worke for Cooper?.

While this was circulating from hand to hand, a more fitting reply to the Admonition was being prepared under the title of Hay any worke for Cooper? a familiar street-cry of the time. The bishop’s name afforded an opportunity for an infinite amount of word-play, and the atmosphere of the tract is thick with tubs, barrels and hoops. Hay any worke is the longest of all Martin’s productions and, except for The Protestation, contains the greatest quantity of serious writing. There is a little of the familiar frolicking at the outset; but Martin very soon puts off his cap and bells and sits down to a solemn confutation of Cooper’s new defence of the civil authority of bishops. After about fifty pages, he recovers himself, and, with a whoop of “Whau, whau, but where have I bin-al this while!” he launches out into ridicule of various passages in the bishop’s apologetic, rounding contemptuously on him for his deficiency in humour—“Are you not able to discern between a pleasant frump given you by a councellor and a spech used in good earnest?”