Musa Pedestris | Page 6

old wife with a wooden bowle of drink. She is drunk. She sings:--]
I
This is bien bowse, this is bien bowse, [1]
Too little is my Skew. [2]

I bowse no lage, but a whole gage [3]
Of this I'll bowse to you.
II
This bowse is better than rom-bowse, [4]
It sets the gan a-gigling, [5]

The autum-mort finds better sport [6]
In bowsing than in nigling.
[7]
This is bien bowse, etc.
[She tosses off her bowle, falls back and is carried out.]
[1: strong ale]
[2: cup or platter]
[3: water; pot]
[4: wine]
[5:
mouth]
[6: wife]
[7: fornicating]
"A BEGGAR I'LL BE" [Notes]
[1660--1663]

[A black-letter broadside ballad]
I
A Beggar, a Beggar, a Beggar I'll be,
There's none leads a life
more jocund than he;
A Beggar I was, and a Beggar I am,
A Beggar
I'll be, from a Beggar I came;
If, as it begins, our trading do fall,

We, in the Conclusion, shall Beggars be all.
Tradesmen are
unfortunate in their Affairs,
And few Men are thriving but Courtiers
and Play'rs.
II
A Craver my Father, a Maunder my Mother, [1]
A Filer my Sister, a
Filcher my Brother,
A Canter my Uncle, that car'd not for Pelf,
A
Lifter my Aunt, and a Beggar myself;
In white wheaten Straw, when
their Bellies were full,
Then was I got between a Tinker and a Trull.

And therefore a Beggar, a Beggar I'll be,
For there's none lives a
Life more jocund than he
III
For such pretty Pledges, as Lullies from Hedges. [2]
We are not in
fear to be drawn upon Sledges,
But sometimes the Whip doth make
us to skip
And then we from Tything to Tything do trip;
But when
in a poor Boozing-Can we do bib it, [3]
We stand more in dread of
the Stocks than the Gibbet
And therefore a merry mad Beggar I'll be

For when it is night in the Barn tumbles he.
IV
We throw down no Altar, nor never do falter,
So much as to change a
Gold-chain for a Halter;
Though some Men do flout us, and others do
doubt us,
We commonly bear forty Pieces about us;
But many good
Fellows are fine and look fiercer,
And owe for their Cloaths to the
Taylor and Mercer:
And if from the Harmans I keep out my Feet, [4]

I fear not the Compter, King's Bench, nor the Fleet. [5]

V
Sometimes I do frame myself to be lame,
And when a Coach comes, I
hop to my game;
We seldom miscarry, or never do marry,
By the
Gown, Common-Prayer, or Cloak-Directory;
But Simon and Susan,
like Birds of a Feather
They kiss, and they laugh, and so jumble
together; [6]
Like Pigs in the Pea-straw, intangled they lie,
Till
there they beget such a bold rogue as I.
VI
When Boys do come to us, and their Intent is
To follow our Calling,
we ne'er bind 'em 'Prentice;
Soon as they come to 't, we teach them to
do 't,
And give them a Staff and a Wallet to boot;
We teach them
their Lingua, to crave and to cant, [7]
The Devil is in them if then
they can want.
And he or she, that a Beggar will be,
Without any
Indentures they shall be made free.
VII
We beg for our Bread, yet sometimes it happens
We fast it with Pig,
Pullet, Coney, and Capons
The Church's Affairs, we are no
Men-slayers,
We have no Religion, yet live by our Prayers;
But if
when we beg, Men will not draw their Purses,
We charge, and give
Fire, with a Volley of Curses;
The Devil confound your good
Worship, we cry,
And such a bold brazen-fac'd Beggar am I.
VIII
We do things in Season, and have so much Reason,
We raise no
Rebellion, nor never talk Treason;
We Bill all our Mates at very low
rates,
While some keep their Quarters as high as the fates;
With
Shinkin-ap-Morgan, with Blue-cap, or Teague, [8]
We into no
Covenant enter, nor League.
And therefore a bonny bold Beggar I'll
be,
For none lives a life more merry than he.

[1 Notes]
[2 wet linen]
[3 ale-house]
[4 stocks]
[5 Notes]
[6
Notes]
[7 beggar's patter]
[8 Notes]
A BUDG AND SNUDG SONG [Notes]
[1676 and 1712]
[From A Warning for Housekeepers... by one who was a prisoner in
Newgate 1676. The second version from the Triumph of Wit (1712)].
I
The budge it is a delicate trade, [1]
And a delicate trade of fame;

For when that we have bit the bloe,[2]
We carry away the game:

But if the cully nap us, [3]
And the lurries from us take, [4]
O then
{they rub}{he rubs} us to the whitt [5]
{And it is hardly }{Though
we are not} worth a make [6]
II
{But}{And} when we come to the whitt
Our darbies to behold, [7]

And for to (take our penitency)(do out penance there)
{And}{We}
boose the water cold. [8]
But when that we come out agen
[And the
merry hick we meet] [9]
We (bite the Cully of; file off with) his cole
[10]
As (we walk; he pikes) along the street.
III
[And when that we have fil'd him [11]
Perhaps of half a job; [12]

Then every man to the boozin ken [13]