Stanza I, line 5. Go-well and Com-well = outgoing and incoming.
A Mort's Drinking Song
See Note to "The Merry Beggars," ante.
"A Beggar I'll Be"
This ballad is from the Bagford Collection which, formed by John
Bagford (1651-1716), passed successively through the hands of James
West (president of the Royal Society), Major Pearson, the Duke of
Roxburghe and Mr. B. H. Bright, until in 1845 it and the more
extensive Roxburghe Collection became the property of the nation.
Stanza II, line 1. Maunder = beggar. Line 2. filer = pickpocket; filcher = thief. Line 3. canter = a tramping beggar or rogue. Line 4. lifter = a shop-thief.
Stanza IV, line 8. Compter (or Counter), King's
Bench, nor the Fleet, all prisons for debtors.
Stanza V, line 6, jumble = to copulate.
Stanza VIII, line 5. With Shinkin-ap-Morgan, with Blue-cap, or Teague = With a Welshman, Scotchman, or Irishman—generic: as now are Taffy, Sandy, and Pat.
A Budg And Snudg Song