/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
The Vain Dreamer
The Vain Dreamer
1725
From The New Canting Dictionary.
I
Yest darkmans dream’d I of my dell,
1 evening
When sleep did overtake her;
It was a dimber drowsy mort,
2 pretty
She slept, I durst not wake her.
II
Her gans were like to coral red,
3 lips
A thousand times I kiss’d ’em;
A thousand more I might have filch’d’
4 stolen
She never could have miss’d ’em.
III
Her strammel, curl’d, like threads of gold,
5 hair
Hung dangling o’er the pillow;
Great pity ’twas that one so prim,
Should ever wear the willow.
IV
I turned down the lilly slat,
6 white sheet
Methought she fell a screaming,
This startled me; I straight awak’d,
And found myself but dreaming.
Notes
See Note to “The Canter’s Serenade.”
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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