IV
We enjoy our ease and rest,
To the fields we are not pressed:
And when taxes are increased,
We are not a penny 'sessed.
V
Nor will any go to law,
With a maunder for a straw,
All which happiness he brags,
Is only owing to his rags.
"Now swear him"—
I crown thy nab with a gage of ben bouse,[4]
And stall thee by the salmon into clowes,[5]
To maund on the pad, and strike all the cheats, [6]
To mill from the Ruffmans, Commission, and slates, [7]
Twang dells i' th' stiromel, and let the Quire Cuffin
And Harman Beck strine and trine to the ruffin. [8]
[1: beggar] [2: constables] [3: magistrates] [4: I pour on thy pate a pot of good ale] [5: And install thee, by oath, a rogue] [6: To beg by the way, steal from all,] [7: Rob hedge of shirt and sheet,] [8: To lie with wenches on the straw, so let all magistrates and constables go to the devil and be hanged!]
THE HIGH PAD'S BOAST [b. 1625]
[Attributed to JOHN FLETCHER—a song from a collection of black-letter broadside ballads. Also in New Canting Dict. 1725.]