/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes

The High Pad’s Boast

The High Pad’s Boast
b. 1625

I

I keep my Horse; I keep my whore;
I take no rents; yet am not poor;
I travel all the land about,
And yet was born to ne’er a foot.

II

With partridge plump, and woodcock fine,
At midnight, I do often dine:
And if my whore be not in Case, 1 in the house
My hostess’ daughter has her place.

III

The maids sit up, and watch their turns;
If I stay long, the tapster mourns;
Nor has the cookmaid mind to sin,
Tho’ tempted by the chamberlain.

IV

But when I knock, O how they bustle;
The hostler yawns, the geldings justle:
If the maid be sleepy, O how they curse her;
And all this comes, of, Deliver your purse, sir.

Taken from Musa Pedestris, Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536―1896], collected and annotated by John S. Farmer.

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Nearby

• 1811 Dictionary of UK Slang, originally by Captain Francis Grose
• 1736 Dictionary of Thieving Slang by Nathan Bailey