T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Northern Ditty
By Thomas D’Urfey (1653–1723)(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. | |