THE JOLLY BEGGARS

A CANTATA

RECITATIVO

I

WHEN lyart leaves bestrow the yird,
Or, wavering like the bauckie-bird,

Bedim cauld Boreas' blast;

When hailstanes drive wi' bitter skyte,
And infant frosts begin to bite,

In hoary cranreuch drest;

Ae night at e'en a merry core
O' randie, gangrel bodies
In Poosie-Nansie's held the splore,

To drink their orra duddies:
Wi' quaffing and laughing
They ranted an' they sang,

Wi' jumping an' thumping
The vera girdle rang.

withered; ground

[Notes]

lash

rime

One; gang lawless; vagrant carousal; [Notes] spare rags

roistered

[Notes]

whisky

leered

flushed with

drink

sounding

mouth

alms-dish

Each

hawker's

And knapsack a' in order;
His doxy lay within his arm;
Wi' usquebae an' blankets warm,

She blinket on her sodger.

An' ay he gies the tozie drab
The tither skelpin kiss,
While she held up her greedy gab

Just like an aumous dish:

Ilk smack still did crack still
Like onie cadger's whup;

Then, swaggering an' staggering,
He roar'd this ditty up:-

AIR

TUNE: Soldier's Joy

I

I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars,

And show my cuts and scars wherever I come : This here was for a wench, and that other in a trench

When welcoming the French at the sound of the drum.

When the bloody die was cast on the heights of
Abram ;

And I served out my trade when the gallant game

was play'd,

And the Moro low was laid at the sound of the drum.

III

I lastly was with Curtis among the floating batt❜ries,
And there I left for witness an arm and a limb;
Yet let my country need me, with Eliott to head me
I'd clatter on my stumps at the sound of the
drum.

IV

And now, tho' I must beg with a wooden arm and

leg

And many a tatter'd rag hanging over my bum, I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle, and my callet

As when I us'd in scarlet to follow a drum.

V

What tho' with hoary locks I must stand the winter shocks,

Beneath the woods and rocks oftentimes for a

home?

When the tother bag I sell, and the tother bottle

tell,

I could meet a troop of Hell at the sound of a

drum.

Lal de daudle, etc.

trull

I once was a maid, tho' I cannot tell when,
And still my delight is in proper young men.
Some one of a troop of dragoons was my daddie:
No wonder I'm fond of a sodger laddie!

Sing, lal de dal, etc.

II

The first of my loves was a swaggering blade :
To rattle the thundering drum was his trade;
His leg was so tight, and his cheek was so ruddy,
Transported I was with my sodger laddie.