| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | A Pleasant New Ballad | | Roxburghe Ballads |
| | Being a pleasant discourse between a country lass and a young tailor
(Anonymous; from Vol. III) |
|
IN harvest-time I walked | |
| hard by a corn-close side; | |
| I hearing people talk, | |
| I looked about, and spied | |
| A young man and a maid, | 5 |
| together they did lie; | |
| When you hear it told, | |
| You’ll laugh full heartily. | |
| |
| She was as buxom a lass | |
| as any in our town; | 10 |
| She will not let you pass, | |
| but she’ll call you to sit down. | |
| A tailor passing by, | |
| she hit him on the heel; | |
| “You are very welcome, Sir, | 15 |
| to sit you down and feel: | |
| |
| “What money’s in my purse | |
| at your command shall be, | |
| If you will go along | |
| to Marston Wake with me.” | 20 |
| He hearing her say so, | |
| and seeing her to smile, | |
| Was charmed with her, so | |
| he sat him down a while. | |
| |
| And having groped her purse, | 25 |
| and taken all her money, | |
| He groped again, and missed, | |
| and caught her by the coney. | |
| “Where am I now?” quoth he, | |
| “another have I found;” | 30 |
| “It’s not the same,” quoth he, | |
| “for this is tufted round. | |
| |
| “If it be tufted round,” quoth she, | |
| “there is good reason for it, | |
| Therein such treasure lies | 35 |
| will make a tailor sport.” | |
| He hearing her say so, | |
| being a frolicsome lad, | |
| Was willing for to know | |
| more of the fringed bag. | 40 |
| |
| With that he eagerly | |
| to feel put forth his hand. | |
| “Nay, hold, good sir,” said she, | |
| “go not before you stand: | |
| Except you take your yard | 45 |
| the depth of it to measure, | |
| You’ll find the purse so deep, | |
| you’ll hardly come to the treasure.” | |
| |
| He hearing her say so, | |
| it put him to a stand; | 50 |
| She seeing him dismayed, | |
| she took his yard in hand; | |
| “Is this your yard,” quoth she, | |
| “is this your tailor’s measure? | |
| It is too short for me, | 55 |
| it is not standard measure.” | |
| |
| The tailor being abashed, | |
| she told him that it was | |
| More fitter for a man, | |
| than such a puny ass. | 60 |
| She bids him now be gone, | |
| since he could make no sport, | |
| And said, “thou art too dull | |
| to enter such a fort.” | |
| |
| Then looking fiercely at him, | 65 |
| she said, “thou sneaking fool, | |
| Go straight away to Vulcan | |
| and let him mend thy tool. | |
| And tell him that Dame Venus | |
| at him is almost mad, | 70 |
| For sending to her school | |
| such an unfit lad.” | |
| |
| You tailors that attempt | |
| fringed bags to measure, | |
| Be sure your yards be sealed, | 75 |
| and of full Standard Measure. | | | |
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