Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Earl of Southesk (Sir James Carnegie) b. 1827

The Flitch of Dunmow

COME Micky and Molly and dainty Dolly,

Come Betty and blithesome Bill;

Ye gossips and neighbors, away with your labors!

Come to the top of the hill.

For there are Jenny and jovial Joe;

Jolly and jolly, jolly they go,

Jogging over the hill.

By apple and berry, ’t is twelve months merry

Since Jenny and Joe were wed!

And never a bother or quarrelsome pother

To rouble the board or bed.

So Joe and Jenny are off to Dunmow:

Happy and happy, happy they go,

Young and rosy and red.

Oh, Jenny ’s as pretty as doves in a ditty;

And Jenny, her eyes are black;

And Joey ’s a fellow as merry and mellow

As ever shoulder’d a sack.

So quick, good people, and come to the show!

Merry and merry, merry they go,

Bumping on Dobbin’s back.

They ’ve prank’d up old Dobbin with ribands and bobbin,

And tether’d his tail in a string!

The fat flitch of bacon is not to be taken

By many that wear the ring!

Good luck, good luck, to Jenny and Joe!

Jolly and jolly, jolly they go.

Hark! how merry they sing.

“O merry, merry, merry are we,

Happy as birds that sing in a tree!

All of the neighbors are merry to-day,

Merry are we and merry are they.

O merry are we! for love, you see,

Fetters a heart and sets it free.

“O happy, happy, happy is life

For Joe (that ’s me) and Jenny my wife!

All of the neighbors are happy, and say—

‘Never were folk so happy as they!’

O happy are we! for love, you see,

Fetters a heart and sets it free.

“O jolly, jolly, jolly we go,

I and my Jenny, and she and her Joe.

All of the neighbors are jolly, and sing—

‘She is a queen, and he is a king!’

O jolly are we! for love, you see,

Fetters a heart and sets it free.”