Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
_A._--As drink is my idol, landlords and their wives get all my money;
they gave me that name in my drunken sprees, wherein I was made a
member of strife, a child of want, and an inheritor of a bundle of rags.
_Q._--What did your landlords and landladies promise for you.
_A._--They did promise and vow three things in my name, first, that I
should renounce the comfort of my own fire side; secondly, starve my
wife and hunger my children; thirdly, walk in rags and tatters, with my
shoe soles going flip flap all the days of my life.
_Catechist._--Rehearse the articles of thy belief.
_Answer._--I believe in the existence of one Mr Alcohol, the great
head and chief of all manner of vice, the source of nine-tenths of all
diseases; and I not only believe, but am sure that when my money is
gone and spent, the landlord will stop the tap and turn me out.
_C._--How many commandments have ye sots to keep?
_A._--Ten.
_C._--What be they.
_A._--The same which the landlord and landlady spake in the bar,
saying, We are thy master and thy mistress who brought thee out of the
paths of virtue, placed thee in the ways of vice, and set thy feet on
the road which leadeth to New South Wales.
I.--Thou shalt use no other house but mine.
II.--Thou shalt not make to thyself any substitute for intoxicating
drinks, such as tea, coffee, ginger-pop and lemonade; for I am a
jealous man, wearing the coat that should be on thy back, eating thy
children’s bread, and pocketing the money which should make thee and
thy wife happy all the days of thy life.
III.--Thou shalt not use my house in vain.
IV.--Remember that thou eat but one meal on the Sabbath day. Six days
shalt thou drink and spend all thy money, but the seventh day is the
Sabbath, wherein I wash my floor, mend my fires and make ready for the
company the remaining part of the day.
V.--Thou shalt honor the landlords, the landladies, and the gin-shops
with thy presence, that thy days may be few and miserable, in the land
wherein thou livest.
VI.--Thou shalt commit murder, by starving, hungering, and beating thy
wife and family.
VII.--Thou shalt commit self-destruction.
VIII.--Thou shalt sell thy wife’s and children’s bread and rob thyself
of all thy comforts.
IX.--Thou shalt bear false witness when thou speakest of the horrors,
saying, Thou art in good health when labouring under the barrel fever.
X.--Thou shalt covet all thy neighbour is possessed of; thou shalt
covet his house, his land, his purse, his health, his wealth, and all
that he has got, that thou mayest indulge in drunkenness, help the
brewer to buy a new coach, a pair of fine horses, a new dray, and a
fine building, that he may live in idleness all his days; likewise to
enable the landlord to purchase a new sign to place over his door, with
“Licensed to be drunk on the Premises” written thereon.
THE DRUNKARD’S LOOKING GLASS!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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