the beggar's curse

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The Beggar’s Curse

1608

From Lanthorne and Candlelight, by THOMAS DEKKER, ed. GROSART (1881), iii, 203:—“a canting song, wherein you may learn, how this cursed generation pray, or (to speake truth) curse such officers as punish them�?.

The Ruffin cly the nab of the Harmanbeck,

If we mawnd Pannam, lap, or Ruff-peck,

Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans,

Or els he sweares by the light-mans,

To put our stamps in the Harmans,

The ruffian cly the ghost of the Harmanbeck

If we heaue a booth we cly the lerk.

If we niggle, or mill a bowzing Ken,

Or nip a boung that has but a win,

Or dup the giger of a Gentry cores ken,

To the quier cuffing we bing;

And then to the quier Ken, to scowre the Cramp-ring,

And then to the Trin’de on the chates, in the light-mans,

The Bube &. Ruffian cly the Harmanbeck & harmans.

The devil take the Constable’s head!

If we beg bread, drink, bacon,

Or milk porridge, he says: “be off to the hedges�?

Or swears, in the morning

To clap our feet in the stocks.

The devil take the Constable’s ghost

If we rob a house we are flogged.

If we fornicate, or thieve in an alehouse,

Rob a purse with only a penny in it.

Or break into a gentleman’s house,

To the magistrate we go;

Then to gaol to be shackled,

Whence to be hanged on the gallows in the morning,

The pox and the devil take the constable and his stocks.

July 14, 2009