Musa Pedestris | Page 9

toute ye.
II
With faces of wallnut,
And bladder and smallgut,
We're come
scraping and singing to rouse ye;
Rise, shake off your straw,
And
prepare you each maw [3]
To kiss, eat, and drink till you're bouzy. [4]

[1: women; girls]
[2: beggars [Notes]]
[3: mouth]
[4: drunk,]
"RETOURE MY DEAR DELL" [Notes]
[1725]
[From The New Canting Dictionary]
I
Each darkmans I pass in an old shady grove, [1]
And live not the
lightmans I toute not my love, [2]
I surtoute every walk, which we
used to pass, [3]
And couch me down weeping, and kiss the cold
grass: [4]
I cry out on my mort to pity my pain,
And all our vagaries
remember again.
II
Didst thou know, my dear doxy, but half of the smart [5]
Which has
seized on my panter, since thou didst depart; [6] Didst thou hear but my
sighs, my complaining and groans,
Thou'dst surely retoure, and pity
my moans: [7]
Thou'dst give me new pleasure for all my past pain,

And I should rejoice in thy glaziers again. [8]
III
But alas! 'tis my fear that the false Patri-coe [9]
Is reaping those
transports are only my due:
Retoure, my dear doxy, oh, once more
retoure,
And I'll do all to please thee that lies in my power:
Then be
kind, my dear dell, and pity my pain,
And let me once more toute thy
glaziers again
IV
On redshanks and tibs thou shalt every day dine, [10]
And if it should
e'er be my hard fate to trine, [11]
I never will whiddle, I never will
squeek, [12]
Nor to save my colquarron endanger thy neck, [13]

Then once more, my doxy, be kind and retoure,
And thou shalt want

nothing that lies in my power.
[1: night]
[2: day; see]
[3: know well]
[4: lie]
[5: mistress]
[6:
heart]
[7: return]
[8: eyes]
[9: hedge-priest]
[10: turkey; geese]

[11: hang]
[12: speak]
[13: neck]
THE VAIN DREAMER. [Notes]
[1725]
[From The New Canting Dictionary].
I
Yest darkmans dream'd I of my dell, [1]
When sleep did overtake
her;
It was a dimber drowsy mort, [2]
She slept, I durst not wake
her.
II
Her gans were like to coral red, [3]
A thousand times I kiss'd 'em;
A
thousand more I might have filch'd' [4]
She never could have miss'd
'em.
III
Her strammel, curl'd, like threads of gold, [5]
Hung dangling o'er the
pillow;
Great pity 'twas that one so prim,
Should ever wear the
willow.
IV
I turned down the lilly slat, [6]
Methought she fell a screaming,

This startled me; I straight awak'd,
And found myself but dreaming.
[1: evening]
[2: pretty]
[3: lips]
[4: stolen]
[5: hair]
[6: white
sheet]
"WHEN MY DIMBER DELL I COURTED" [Notes]
[1725]
[From The New Canting Dictionary],

I
When my dimber dell I courted [1]
She had youth and beauty too,

Wanton joys my heart transported,
And her wap was ever new. [2]

But conquering time doth now deceive her,
Which her pleasures did
uphold;
All her wapping now must leave her,
For, alas! my dell's
grown old.
II
Her wanton motions which invited,
Now, alas! no longer charm,

Her glaziers too are quite benighted, [3]
Nor can any prig-star charm.

For conquering time, alas! deceives her
Which her triumphs did
uphold,
And every moving beauty leaves her
Alas! my dimber
dell's grown old.
III
There was a time no cull could toute her, [4]
But was sure to be
undone:
Nor could th' uprightman live without her, [5]
She
triumph'd over every one.
But conquering time does now deceive her,

Which her sporting us'd t' uphold,
All her am'rous dambers leave
her,
For, alas! the dell's grown old.
IV
All thy comfort, dimber dell,
Is, now, since thou hast lost thy prime,

That every cull can witness well,
Thou hast not misus'd thy time.

There's not a prig or palliard living,
Who has not been thy slave
inroll'd.
Then cheer thy mind, and cease thy grieving;
Thou'st had
thy time, tho' now grown old.
[1: pretty wench]
[2: Notes]
[3: eyes]
[4: man; look at]
[5:
Notes]
THE OATH OF THE CANTING CREW [Notes]
[1749]

[From The Life of Bampfylde Moore Carew, by ROBERT GOADBY].
I, Crank Cuffin, swear to be [1]
True to this fraternity;
That I will in
all obey
Rule and order of the lay.
Never blow the gab or squeak; [2]

Never snitch to bum or beak; [3]
But religiously maintain

Authority of those who reign
Over Stop Hole Abbey green, [4]
Be
their tawny king, or queen.
In their cause alone will fight;
Think
what they think, wrong or right;
Serve them truly, and no other,

And be faithful to my brother;
Suffer none, from far or near,
With
their rights to interfere;
No strange Abram, ruffler crack, [5]

Hooker of another pack,
Rogue or rascal, frater, maunderer, [6]

Irish toyle, or other wanderer; [7]
No dimber, dambler, angler, dancer,

Prig of cackler, prig of prancer;
No swigman, swaddler,
clapper-dudgeon;
Cadge-gloak, curtal, or curmudgeon;
No
whip-jack, palliard, patrico;
No jarkman, be he high or low;
No
dummerar, or romany;
No member of the family;
No ballad-basket,
bouncing buffer,
Nor any other, will I suffer;
But stall-off now and
for ever
All outtiers whatsoever;
And as I keep to the foregone,

So may help me Salamon! [By the mass!]
[1: Notes]
[2: reveal secrets]
[3: betray to bailif or magistrate]
[4:
Notes]
[5: Notes]
[6: Notes; beggar]
[7: Notes]
COME ALL YOU BUFFERS GAY [Notes]
[1760]
[From The Humourist .... a choice collection o£ songs. 'A New Flash
Song',