Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

The Winchester Wedding

Thomas D’Urfey (1653–1723)

AT Winchester was a wedding,

The like was never seen,

’Twixt lusty Ralph of Reading

And bonny Black Bess of the Green:

The fiddlers were crowding before,

Each lass was as fine as a queen;

There was a hundred and more,

For all the country came in:

Brisk Robin led Rose so fair,

She looked like a lily o’ th’ vale,

And ruddy-faced Harry led Mary,

And Roger led bouncing Nell.

With Tommy came smiling Katy,

He helped her over the stile,

And swore there was none so pretty

In forty and forty long mile:

Kit gave a green gown to Betty,

And lent her his hand to rise;

But Jenny was jeered by Watty

For looking blue under the eyes:

Thus merrily chatting all,

They passed to the bride-house along,

With Johnny and pretty-faced Nanny,

The fairest of all the throng.

The bride came out to meet ’em,

Afraid the dinner was spoiled;

And ushered ’em in to treat ’em

With baked and roasted and boiled:

The lads were so frolic and jolly,

For each had his love by his side,

But Willy was melancholy,

For he had a mind to the bride:

Then Philip begins her health

And turns a beer-glass on his thumb;

But Jenkin was reckoned for drinking

The best in Christendom.

And, now they had dined, advancing

Into the midst of the Hall,

The fiddlers struck up for dancing

And Jeremy led up the brawl;

But Margery kept a quarter,

A lass that was proud of her pelf,

’Cause Arthur had stolen her garter

And swore he would tie it himself:

She struggled, and blushed, and frowned,

And ready with anger to cry,

’Cause Arthur, with tying her garter,

Had slipped his hand too high.

And now, for throwing the stocking,

The bride away was led;

The bridegroom got drunk and was knocking

For candles to light ’em to bed:

But Robin, that found him silly,

Most friendly took him aside,

The while that his wife with Willy

Was playing at hopper’s-hide:

And now the warm game begins,

The critical minute was come,

And chatting and billing and kissing

Went merrily round the room.

Pert Stephen was kind to Betty,

And blithe as a bird in the spring;

And Tommy was so to Katy,

And married her with a rush-ring:

Sukey, that danced with the cushion,

An hour from the room had been gone,

And Barnaby knew by her blushing

That some other dance had been done:

And thus, of the fifty fair maids

That came to the wedding with men,

Scarce five of the fifty was left ye

That so did return again.