Among brothers and equals I rule;
We all help both to gain and to spend,
And get drunk when the treasury’s full;
And ’tis I am the gipsy king.
* * * * *
This song is founded upon a number of earlier songs recounting the supposed joys of a gipsy life, a few of which may be enumerated for comparison. The first is taken from an old play, entitled “More Dissemblers besides Women,” printed in 1657:—
Song of the Gipsies.
Come, my dainty doxies,
My dells, my dells most dear;
We have neither house nor land,