THE GAY LADY THAT WENT TO CHURCH.
There was a lady all skin and bone;
Sure such a lady was never known:
It happen'd upon a certain day,
This lady went to church to pray.
When she came to the church stile,
There she did rest a little while;
When she came to the churchyard,
There the bells so loud she heard.
When she came to the church door,
She stopt to rest a little more;
When she came the church within,
The parson pray'd 'gainst pride and sin.
On looking up, on looking down,
She saw a dead man on the ground;
And from his nose unto his chin,
The worms crawl'd out, the worms crawl'd in.[E]
Then she unto the parson said,
Shall I be so when I am dead:
O yes! O yes, the parson said,
You will be so when you are dead.
Here the lady screams.
[E] This line has been adopted in the modern ballad of Alonzo and Fair Imogene.
ARITHMETICK.
One, two,
Buckle my shoe;
Three, four,
Lay down lower;
Five, six,
Pick up sticks;
Seven, eight,
Lay them straight;
Nine, ten,
A good fat hen;
Eleven, twelve,
Who will delve?
Thirteen, fourteen,
Maids a-courting;
Fifteen, sixteen,
Maids a-kissing;
Seventeen, eighteen,
Maids a-waiting;
Nineteen, twenty,
My belly's empty.
TELLING OUT.
One-ery, two-ery,
Ziccary zan;
Hollow bone, crack a bone,
Ninery ten:
Spittery spot,
It must be done;
Twiddleum twaddleum
Twenty-ONE.
Hink spink, the puddings stink,
The fat begins to fry,
Nobody at home, but jumping Joan,
Father, mother, and I.
Stick, stock, stone dead,
Blind man can't see,
Every knave will have a slave,
You or I must be HE.
THE SEDATE PREACHER.
Old Dr. Forster,
Went to Glo'ster,
To preach the word of God:
When he came there,
He sate in his chair,
And gave all the people a nod.
THE DEAF OLD WOMAN.
Old woman, old woman, shall we go a-shearing?
Speak a little louder, Sir, I'm very thick of hearing.
Old woman, old woman, shall I kiss you dearly?
Thank you, kind Sir; I hear you very clearly.
EVENING DITTY.
Girls and boys come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day:
Come with a hoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will, or not at all:
Leave your supper and leave your sleep,
Come to your playfellows in the street:
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A penny loaf will serve us all.
Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else I'll make you as black as a coal.[F]
[F] It was probably the custom, on repeating these lines, to hold the snail to a candle, in order to make it quit the shell. In Normandy it was the practice, at Christmas, for boys to run round fruit-trees, with lighted torches, singing these lines:
Taupes et mulots,
Sortez de vos clos,
Sinon vous brulerai et la barbe et les os.
Sing jig my jole, the pudding bowl,
The table and the frame,
My master he did cudgel me,
For kissing of my dame.
Bell horses, bell horses,
What time o' day?
One a clock, two a clock,
Time to away.
O the little rusty, dusty, rusty miller:
I'll not change my wife for either gold or siller.
The rose is red, the grass is green,
Serve King George our noble King:
Kitty the spinner will sit down to dinner,
And eat the leg of a frog;
All good people look over the steeple,
And see the cat play with the dog.
Doctor Foster was a good man,
He whipped his scholars, now and then,
And when he had done, he took a dance,
Out of England into France.
He had a brave beaver with a fine snout,
Stand you there out.
The cat sat asleep by the side of the fire,
The mistress snored loud as a pig:
Jack took up his fiddle, by Jenny's desire,
And struck up a bit of a jig.
Little maid, pretty maid, whither goest thou?
Down in the forest to milk my cow.
Shall I go with thee?—No, not now;
When I send for thee, then come thou.
The cock's on the dunghill a-blowing his horn;
The bull's in the barn a-threshing of corn;
The maids in the meadows are making of hay;
The ducks in the rivers are swimming away.
Up street and down street, each window's made of glass;
If you go to Tom Tickler's house, you'll find a pretty lass:
Hug her, and kiss her, and take her on your knee,
And whisper very close: Darling girl, do you love me?
As I was going up Pippen hill,
Pippen hill was dirty,
There I met a pretty Miss,
And she dropt me a curtsey.
Little Miss, pretty Miss,
Blessings light upon you,
If I had half-a-crown a day,
I'd spend it all upon you.
Dickery, dickery, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock:
The clock struck one,
And down he run;
Dickery, dickery, dock.
Barnaby Bright he was a sharp cur,
He always would bark if a mouse did but stir:
But now he's grown old, and can no longer bark,
He's condemn'd by the parson to be hang'd by the clerk.
If all the world was apple-pie,
And all the sea was ink;
And all the trees were bread and cheese,
What could we do for drink?
Old Mother Niddity Nod swore by the pudding-bag,
She would go to Stoken Church fair;
And then old Father Peter said he would meet her,
Before she got half-way there.
Little brown Betty lived at the Golden Can,
Where she brew'd good ale for gentlemen;
And gentlemen came every day,
Till little brown Betty she hopt away.
Tom Thumb the piper's son,
Stole a pig, and away did run;
The pig was eat, and Tom was beat,
Till he ran crying down the street.
Jack Sprat would eat no fat,
His wife would eat no lean;
Now was not this a pretty trick,
To make the platter clean.
As I was going to sell my eggs,
I met a man with bandy legs;
Bandy legs and crooked toes,
I tript up his heels, and he fell on his nose.
Yankey Doodle came to town,
How do you think they serv'd him?
One took his bag, another his scrip,
The quicker for to starve him.
There was an old woman had nothing,
And there came thieves to rob her;
When she cried out she made no noise,
But all the whole country heard her.
Pillycock, pillycock, sate on a hill:
If he's not gone—he sits there still.
Humpty-dumpty sate on a wall,
Humpti-dumpti had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more,
Cannot place Humpty-dumpty as he was before.
Little boy Bluet, come blow me your horn,
The cow's in the meadow, the sheep in the corn:
But where is the little boy tenting the sheep?
He's under the hay-cock fast asleep.
Pussy cat, pussy cat, wilt thou be mine,
Thou shalt neither wash dishes nor feed the swine:
But sit on a cushion and sew a silk seam,
And eat fine strawberries, sugar, and cream.
Danty baby diddy,
What can mammy do wid'e,
But sit in a lap,
And give 'un a pap,
Sing danty baby diddy.
Dingle, dingle, doosey,
The cat's in the well;
The dog's away to Bellingen,
To buy the bairn a bell.[G]
[G] This is a Scottish ditty, on whirling round a piece of lighted paper to the child. The paper is called the dingle doosey.
I'll sing you a song,
Nine verses long,
For a pin;
Three and three are six,
And three are nine;
You are a fool,
And the pin is mine.
Tom Brown's two little Indian boys, two, etc.
One ran away,
The other would not stay,
Tom Brown's two little Indian boys.
Old Mother Hubbard, she went to the cupboard,
To fetch her poor dog a bone:
When she came there, the cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.
