“_Not drunk, nor yet sober, but brother to both,_ _I met with a man upon Aylesbury Vale,_ _I saw in his face that he was in good case_ _To go and take part of a tankard of ale._” Omitting all sequence of narrative, the other verses are adapted from the _Antidote’s_ 21st, 19th, 10th, 26th, and 50th; concerning the hedger, beggar, widow, clerk, and amicable conclusion over a tankard of ale. In a _Convivial Songster_, of 1807, by Tegg, London, these six are given with addition of another as fifth:— _The old parish Vicar, when he’s in his liquor,_ _Will merrily at his parishioners rail,_ _“Come, pay all your tithes, or I’ll kiss all your wives,”_ _When once he shakes hands with a tankard of ale._ It had appeared in a Chap-book (circa 1794, according to Wm. Logan; see his amusing “Pedlar’s Pack,” pp. 224-6), with other five verses inserted before the Finale. We give them to complete the tale:— _There’s the blacksmith by trade, a jolly brisk blade,_ _Cries, “Fill up the bumper, dear host, from the pail;”_ _So cheerful he’ll sing, and make the house ring,_ _When once he shakes hands with a tankard of ale._ _Laru la re, laru, &c. So cheerful, &c._ _There’s the tinker, ye ken, cries “old kettles to mend,”_ _With his budget and hammer to drive in the nail;_ _Will spend a whole crown, at one sitting down,_ _When once he shakes hands with a tankard of ale._ _Laru, &c._ _There’s the mason, brave ~John~, the carver of stone,_ _The Master’s grand secret he’ll never reveal;_ _Yet how merry is he with his lass on his knee,_ _When once he shakes hands with a tankard of ale._ _Laru, &c._ _You maids who feel shame, pray me do not blame,_ _Though your private ongoings in public I tell;_ _Young ~Bridget~ and ~Nell~ to kiss will not fail_ _When once they shake hands with a tankard of ale._ _Laru, &c._ _There’s some jolly wives, love drink as their lives,_ _Dear neighbours but mind the sad thread of my tale;_ _Their husbands they’ll scorn, as sure’s they were born,_ _If once they shake hands with a tankard of ale._ _Laru, &c._ _From wrangling or jangling, and ev’ry such strife,_ _Or anything else that may happen to fall;_ _From words come to blows, and sharp bloody nose,_ _But friends again over a tankard of ale._ _Laru, &c._ Notice the characteristic mention of William Elderton, the Ballad-writer (who died before 1592), in the thirty-third verse (our p. 119):— _For ballads Elderton never had peer;_ _How went his wit in them, with how merry a gale,_ _And with all the sails up, had he been at the cup,_ _And washed his beard with a pot of good ale._