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.