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Replies to a comment by Angela McShane on the author's article "The Roasting of the Rump: Scatology and the Body Politic in Restoration England", published in "Past and Present", November 2002. Contends that McShane oversimplifies and misrepresents the article's arguments and fundamentally misapprehends its aim. Rather than attempting a comprehensive account of political balladry or the symbolism of the body politic in mid-17th century England, the article is narrowly focused on the range of potential meanings associated with the abusive term "Rump" as applied to the Parliament of 1659 and featured in contemporary ballad texts and street festivities. Its broader aim is to complicate our understanding of bodily imagery in political discourse by conveying something of the allusive, associative and punning nature of Rump imagery. (Quotes from original text)