III

Spring's the boy for rum going and coming it,

Smashing and dashing, and tipping it prime,

Eastward and westward, and sometimes back-slumming it,

He's for the scratch, and come up too in time;

For the victualling-office no favor he'll ask it,

For smeller and ogles he feels just the same;

At the pipkin to point, or upset the bread-basket,

He's always in twig, and bang-up for the game;

With going and tipping, and priming and timing

'Till groggy and queery, straight-forwards the rig;

With ogles and smellers, no piping and chiming,

You'll own he's the boy that is always in twig.

BOBBY AND HIS MARY [Notes]

[1826]

[From _Universal Songster_, iii. 108].

Tune--_Dulce Domum_.

In Dyot-street a booze-ken stood, [1]

Oft sought by foot-pads weary,

And long had been the blest abode

Of Bobby, and his Mary.

For her he'd nightly pad the hoof, [2]

And gravel tax collect [3]

For her he never shammed the snite.

Though traps tried to detect him; [4]

When darkey came he sought his home

While she, distracted blowen [5]

She hailed his sight,

And, ev'ry night

The booze-ken rung

As they sung,

O, Bobby and his Mary.

Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] · 第 133 / 298 题