T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Northern Ditty
By Thomas DUrfey (16531723)(Roxburgh Ballads, ii. 374; words D’Urfey) |
COLD and Raw the North did blow, | |
Bleak in the morning early; | |
All the Trees were hid with Snow, | |
Cover’d with Winter’s fearly: | |
As I came riding o’er the Slough, | 5 |
I met with a Farmer’s Daughter; | |
Rosie Cheeks and bonny Brow, | |
Geud Faith made my mouth to water. | |
Down I vail’d my Bonnet low, | |
Meaning to shew my breeding, | 10 |
She return’d a graceful bow, | |
Her Visage far exceeding; | |
I ask’d her where she went so soon, | |
And long’d to begin a Parley; | |
She told me into the next Market-Town, | 15 |
A purpose to sell her Barley. | |
In this Purse, sweet Soul, said I, | |
Twenty pound lies fairly, | |
Seek no farther one to buy, | |
For I’ll take all thy Barley; | 20 |
Twenty more shall purchase delight, | |
Thy Person I Love so dearly, | |
If thou wilt lig by me all night, | |
And gang home in the morning early. | |
If Forty pound would buy the Globe, | 25 |
This I’d not do, Sir: | |
Or were my Friends as poor as Job, | |
I’d never raise ’em so, Sir: | |
For shou’d you prove to-night, my Friend, | |
We’d get a young Kid together, | 30 |
And you’d be gone ere nine Months end, | |
And where should I find the Father? | |
Pray what would my Parents say, | |
If I should be so silly, | |
To give my Maidenhead away, | 35 |
And lose my true Love Billy? | |
Oh, this would bring me to Disgrace, | |
And therefore I say you nay, Sir; | |
And if that me you would Embrace, | |
First Marry, and then you may, Sir. | 40 |
I told her I had Wedded been, | |
Fourteen years and longer, | |
Else I’d choose her for my Queen, | |
And tie the Knot yet stronger. | |
She bid me then no farther roam, | 45 |
But manage my Wedlock fairly, | |
And keep my Purse for my Spouse at home, | |
For some other shall have her Barley. | |
Then as swift as any Roe, | |
She rode away and left me; | 50 |
After her I could not go, | |
Of Joy she quite bereft me: | |
Thus I myself did disappoint, | |
For she did leave me fairly, | |
My words knocked all things out of joint, | 55 |
I lost both the maid and barley. | |