Nursery rhymes, English; Oral tradition -- England
Little miss, pretty miss,
Blessings light upon you!
If I had half-a-crown a day,
I'd spend it all on you.
CCCCXL.
Brave news is come to town,
Brave news is carried;
Brave news is come to town,
Jemmy Dawson's married.
CCCCXLI.
Willy, Willy Wilkin,
Kissed the maids a-milking,
Fa, la, la!
And with his merry daffing,
He set them all a laughing.
Ha, ha, ha!
CCCCXLII.
It's once I courted as pretty a lass,
As ever your eyes did see;
But now she's come to such a pass,
She never will do for me.
She invited me to her own house,
Where oft I'd been before,
And she tumbled me into the hog-tub,
And I'll never go there any more.
CCCCXLIII.
Sylvia, sweet as morning air,
Do not drive me to despair:
Long have I sighed in vain,
Now I am come again,
Will you be mine or no, no-a-no,--
Will you be mine or no?
Simon pray leave off your suit,
For of your courting you'll reap no fruit,
I would rather give a crown
Than be married to a clown;
Go for a booby, go, no-a-no,--
Go, for a booby, go.
CCCCXLIV.
What care I how black I be,
Twenty pounds will marry me;
If twenty won't, forty shall,
I am my mother's bouncing girl!
CCCCXLV.
"Where have you been all the day,
My boy Willy?"
"I've been all the day,
Courting of a lady gay:
But oh! she's too young
To be taken from her mammy."
"What work can she do,
My boy Willy?
Can she bake and can she brew,
My boy Willy?"
"She can brew and she can bake,
And she can make our wedding cake:
But oh! she's too young
To be taken from her mammy."
"What age may she be? What age may she be?
My boy Willy?"
"Twice two, twice seven,
Twice ten twice eleven:
But oh! she's too young
To be taken from her mammy."
CCCCXLVI.
[This is part of a little work called 'Authentic Memoirs of
the little Man and the little Maid, with some interesting
particulars of their lives,' which I suspect is more modern
than the following. Walpole printed a small broadside
containing a different version.]
There was a little man,
And he woo'd a little maid,
And he said, "little maid, will you wed, wed, wed?
I have little more to say,
Than will you, yea or nay,
For least said is soonest mended-ded, ded, ded."
The little maid replied,
Some say a little sighed,
"But what shall we have for to eat, eat, eat?
Will the love that you're so rich in
Make a fire in the kitchen?
Or the little god of Love turn the spit, spit, spit?"
CCCCXLVII.
There was a little boy and a little girl
Lived in an alley;
Says the little boy to the little girl,
"Shall I, oh! shall I?"
Says the little girl to the little boy,
"What shall we do?"
Says the little boy to the little girl,
"I will kiss you."
CCCCXLVIII.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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