T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Tottingham Frolic
Anonymous(From Choyce Drollery) AS I came from Tottingham | |
Upon a Market-day, | |
There I met with a bonny Lass | |
Cloathed all in Gray, | |
Her Journey was to London, | 5 |
With Butter-milk and Whey. | |
To come Down a down, | |
To come Down, down a down a. | |
Sweet-heart, quoth he, | |
You’re well overtook, | 10 |
With that she cast her Head aside, | |
And lent to him a Look; | |
Then presently these two | |
Both Hands together shook: | |
To come, etc. | 15 |
And as they rode together, | |
Along side by side, | |
The Maiden it so chanced, | |
Her Garter was unty’d; | |
For fear that she should lose it, | 20 |
Look here, Sweet-heart, he cry’d, | |
Your Garter is down a down, etc. | |
Good Sir, quoth she, | |
I pray you take the Pain, | |
To do so much for me, | 25 |
As to take it up again, | |
With a good will, quoth he, | |
When I come to yonder Plain, | |
I will take you down, etc. | |
And when they came unto the Place, | 30 |
Upon the Grass so green, | |
The Maid she held her Legs so wide, | |
The Young man slipt between, | |
Such tying of a Garter, | |
You have but seldom seen. | 35 |
To come down, etc. | |
Then she rose up again, | |
And thank’d him for his pain: | |
He took her by the middle small, | |
And Kiss’d her once again: | 40 |
Her Journey was to London, | |
And he from Highgate came, | |
To come down, etc. | |
Thus Tibb of Tottingham, | |
She lost her Maiden-head, | 45 |
But yet it is no matter, | |
It stood her in small stead, | |
For it did often trouble her, | |
As she lay in her Bed. | |
To come down, etc. | 50 |
But when all her Butter-milk | |
And her Whey was sold, | |
The loss of her Maiden-head, | |
It waxed very cold: | |
But that which will away, quoth she, | 55 |
Is very hard to hold, | |
To come, etc. | |
You Maids, you Wives, and Widows, | |
That now do hear my Song, | |
If any young man proffer Kindness, | 60 |
Pray take it short, or long; | |
For there is no such Comfort | |
As lying with a Man. | |
To come Down a down, | |
To come Down, down a down a. | 65 |