Poor Luddy

Poor Luddy
b. 1826

By T. DIBDIN. Universal Songster, Vol. iii.

As I was walking down the Strand,
      Luddy, Luddy,
  Ah, poor Luddy, I. O.
As I was walking down the Strand,
The traps they nabbed me out of hand 1 police; arrested
      Luddy, Luddy,
  Ah, poor Luddy, I. O.
          As I was walking, etc.

Said I, kind justice, pardon me,
      Luddy, Luddy,
  Ah, poor Luddy, I. O.
Said I, kind justice, pardon me,
Or Botany-Bay I soon shall see
      Luddy, Luddy,
  Ah, poor Luddy, I. O.
          Said I, kind justice, etc.

Sessions and ’sizes are drawing nigh,
      Luddy, Luddy,
    Ah, poor Luddy, I. O.
Sessions and ’sizes are drawing nigh,
I’d rather you was hung than I.
      Luddy, Luddy,
  Ah, poor Luddy, I. O.
          Sessions and ’sizes, etc.

Notes

Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), the author of this song, was an actor and dramatist—an illegitimate son of Charles Dibdin the elder. He claimed to have written nearly 2000 songs.

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