T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Cumberland Lass
Anonymous(c. 1674–80; from Pills to Purge Melancholy, 1719) |
THERE was a Lass in Cumberland, | |
| A bonny Lass of high Degree: | |
| There was a Lass, her Name was Nell, | |
| The blithest Lass that e’er you see: | |
| Oh! to Bed to me, to Bed to me, | 5 |
| The Lass that comes to Bed to me: | |
| Blithe and bonny may she be, | |
| The Lass that comes to Bed to me. | |
| Her Father lov’d her passing well, | |
| So did her Brother fancy Nell; | 10 |
| But all their Loves came short of mine, | |
| As far as Tweed is from the Tyne. | |
| She had five Dollars in a Chest, | |
| Four of them she gave to me; | |
| She cut her Mother’s Winding-Sheet, | 15 |
| And all to make a sark for me. | |
| She plucked a Box out of her Purse, | |
| Of four Gold Rings she gave me three; | |
| She thought herself no whit the worse, | |
| She was so very kind to me. | 20 |
| If I were Lord of all the North, | |
| To Bed and Board she should be free, | |
| For why, she is the bonniest Lass, | |
| That is in all her own Country. | |
| Her Cherry-Cheeks and Ruby Lips, | 25 |
| Doth with the Damask Rose agree, | |
| With other Parts which I’ll not Name, | |
| Which are so pleasing unto me. | |
| For I have rid both East and West, | |
| And been in many a strange Country, | 30 |
| Yet never met with so kind a Lass, | |
| Compared with Cumberland Nelly. | |
| When I embrace her in my Arms, | |
| She takes it kind and courteously, | |
| And hath such pretty winning Charms, | 35 |
| The like whereof you ne’er did see: | |
| There’s not a Lass in Cumberland | |
| To be compared to smiling Nell, | |
| She hath so soft and white a Hand, | |
| And something more that I’ll not tell. | 40 |
| Up to my Chamber I her got, | |
| There I did treat her courteously, | |
| I told her, I thought it was her Lot | |
| To stay all night and Lig with me. | |
| She, pretty Rogue, could not say nay, | 45 |
| But by consent we did agree, | |
| That she for a fancy, there should stay, | |
| And come at night to Bed to me. | |
| She made the Bed both broad and wide, | |
| And with her Hand she smoothed it down; | 50 |
| She kissed me thrice, and smiling said, | |
| My Love, I fear thou wilt sleep too soon. | |
| Into my Bed I hasted strait, | |
| And presently she followed me, | |
| It was in vain to make her wait, | 55 |
| For a Bargain must a Bargain be. | |
| Then I embraced this lovely Lass, | |
| And stroked her Wem so bonnily, | |
| But for the rest we’ll let it pass, | |
| For she afterward sung Lullaby; | 60 |
| Oh! to Bed to me, to Bed to me, | |
| The Lass that came to Bed to me, | |
| Blithe and Bonny sure was she, | |
| The Lass that came to Bed to me. | |