Be merry my hearts, and call for your quarts, and let no liquor go lacking, We have gold in store, we purpose to roar until we set care a packing. Then Hostis make haste, and let no time waste, let every man have his due, To save shooes and trouble, bring in the pots double for he that made one, made two.[63]
Then while we are here, wee’le drinke Ale and Beer, and freely our money wee’le spend, Let no man take care for paying his share, if need be Ile pay for my friend, Then Hostesse make haste, and let no time waste; you’re welcome all kind Gentlemen; {326} Never feare to carowse, while there is beere in the house, for he that made nine made ten.
Now I thinke it is fit, and most requisit, to drinke a health to our wives, The which being done, wee’le pay and be gone, strong drinke all our wits now deprives: Then Hostesse lets know, the summe that we owe, twelve pence there is for certaine, Then fill t’other pot, and here’s money for’t, for he that made twelve made thirteen.”
The poet was probably at a loss for a word to rhyme with fourteen, or the ballad would have been longer.
[63] The “he that made” is probably the brewer. The numbers increase by ones in the last line of each verse, the last verse reaching thirteen.
Another song of much the same character is Monday’s Work, the work being no work at all, but a day spent at the alehouse. The only known copy of this ballad is in the Roxburghe Collection. The author is unknown.
MONDAYS WORK