[102] Referring to a salacious incident shortly before related. Further details would be out of place in this volume.
[103] Somewhat obscure. This rendering, that of the English translation, is not in accord with the French text, nor does it seem to us to represent what happened as described in the English translation.
[104] J. S. Farmer: Merry Songs and Ballads: Privately Printed, 1897: vol. 3: from Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719). A similar ballad, John and Jone, from Merry Drollerie (1661) is given by Farmer in the second volume of his work.
[105] John and Joan, strictly speaking, is a variant of three stories quoted earlier on in this volume, (The Instrument, The Timorous Fiancée and The Enchanted Ring), inasmuch as all contain the same idea—the possibility of purchasing a membrum virile. At the same time, our ballad has a totally different setting, the maid in this case obtaining her first knowledge from the actions of others.
[106] Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles: Translated for the first time into English by Robert B. Douglas (One Hundred Merrie and Delightsome Stories), Paris: Charles Carrington. Also French Text, Paris: Gamier Frères, n.d.
[107] Probably Picardy or Lorraine.—Note by R. B. Douglas.
[108] Faire la bête à deux dos. A recognised slang term for the venereal act, used by Rabelais and Shakespeare. C.f. Farmer: Slang and its Analogues (op. cit. supra), and Landes: Glossaire érotique de la langue française: Brussels, 1861.
[109] Denrée d’aventure. A recognised erotic term for the male genital parts. C.f. Farmer and Landes (op. cit. supra). Denrée, properly, means a “commodity,” which is not far removed from the English slang term “concern.” (Farmer.)
[110] The text here is somewhat obscure. Mr. Douglas translates “No need to go so fast.”
[111] Touzle or Tousle, in its original sense, meant “to rumple”—“to pull or mess about,” but came in time to signify, in erotic slang, the act of “mastering a woman by romping.” (Vide Farmer: Slang and its Analogues.) It belongs to that class of word connoting the sexual act which may be described as energetic, as implying a sense of lively action and movement. Farmer, under his key-word Ride, gives a number of similar terms, among them:—to belly-bump; to bounce; to cuddle; to ferret; to frisk; to fumble; to hug; to hustle; to jiggle; to jumble; to muddle; to niggle; to plough; to rummage; to shake; and to tumble. Touzle is Fielding’s term for the venereal act.