/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
The Game Of High Toby
The Game Of High Toby
1834
By W. HARRISON AINSWORTH in Rookwood.
I
Now Oliver puts his black night-cap on,
1 the moon
And every star its glim is hiding,
2 light
And forth to the heath is the scampsman gone,
3 highwayman
His matchless cherry-black prancer riding;
4 black horse
Merrily over the Common, he flies,
Fast and free as the rush of rocket,
His crape-covered vizard drawn over his eyes,
His tol by his side and his pops in his pocket.
5 sword; pistols
Chorus.
Then who can name
So merry a game,
As the game of all games—high-toby?
6 high-way robbery
II
The traveller hears him, away! away!
Over the wide, wide heath he scurries;
He heeds not the thunderbolt summons to stay,
But ever the faster and faster he hurries,
But what daisy-cutter can match that black tit?
7 fleet horse; horse
He is caught—he must ‘stand and deliver’;
Then out with the dummy, and off with the bit,
8 pocketbook
Oh! the game of high-toby for ever!
Chorus.
Then who can name
So merry a game
As the game of all games—high-toby?
III
Believe me, there is not a game, my brave boys,
To compare with the game of high-toby;
No rapture can equal the tobyman’s joys,
9 highwayman
To blue devils, blue plumbs give the go-by;
10 bullets
And what if, at length, boys, he come to the crap!
11 gallows
Even rack punch has
some bitter in it,
For the mare-with-three-legs, boys, I care not a rap,
12 gallows
’Twill be over in less than a minute!
Chorus.
Then hip, hurrah!
Fling care away!
Hurrah for the game of high-toby!
Notes
See note to “Nix my Doll, Pals, etc.,” ante.
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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