I'll bait a bull or fight a cock,
Or pigeons I will fly;
I'm up to all your knowing rigs [8]
Whilst I my potatoes cry.
Chorus. And they all, etc.
VI
There's five pounds two-pence honest weight
Your own scales take and try;
For nibbing culls I always hate, [9]
And I in safety cry.
Chorus. And they all, etc.
[1: fellow] [2: mistress] [3: money; Notes] [4: cry out] [5: halfpenny] [6: handkerchief] [7: Notes; neck.] [8: smart tricks] [9: cheating dealers]
A SLANG PASTORAL [Notes] [1780]
[By R. TOMLINSON:—a Parody on a poem by Dr. Byrom, "My time, O ye muses, was happily spent">[.
I
My time, O ye kiddies, was happily spent, [1]
When Nancy trigg'd with me wherever I went; [2]
Ten thousand sweet joys ev'ry night did we prove;
Sure never poor fellow like me was in love!
But since she is nabb'd, and has left me behind, [3]
What a marvellous change on a sudden I find!
When the constable held her as fast as could be,
I thought 'twas Bet Spriggins; but damme 'twas she.
II
With such a companion, a green-stall to keep,
To swig porter all day, on a flock-bed to sleep, [4]
I was so good-natur'd, so bobbish and gay, [5]
And I still was as smart as a carrot all day:
But now I so saucy and churlish am grown,
So ragged and greasy, as never was known;
My Nancy is gone, and my joys are all fled,
And my arse hangs behind me, as heavy as lead.