Subject: Lyr Add: THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF ADAM AND EVE
From:
Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Dec 04 - 04:57 PM
Several later broadsides use the tune of "Good Old Days of Adam and Eve, but I haven't found it yet.
GOOD OLD DAYS OF ADAM AND EVE 2
(English broadside)
I sing, I sing of good days older,
When men and women were the bolder,
When bills were short and credit shorter,
And when from malt they brew'd the porter,
None but lawyers used to pillage,
This very town was but a Village,
Christmas had its christmas carrols,
And ladies sides were hoop'd like barrels.
Chorus:
Sing hey, sing ho, let people grieve,
For the good old Days of Adam and Eve.
When drinking ale made strong men stronger,
And Doctors let folks live the longer,
Wnen our grand dads brew'd strong October,
And thought it a sin to go to bed sober,
Then was the times for games and gambols,
Streets were covered with brambles,
Hedges, ditches and ponds of water,
But now there is nothing but bricks and mortar.
I'll sing-- I'll sing in jingling rhymes,
In praise now of the good old times,
When servants were as servants ought,
And beer was brew'd from hops and malt;
But now the beer, I swear and vow,
Is brew'd -- there's no one can tell how,
And all the money that servants gather,
Goes to raise a new hat and feather.
But the times are chang'd, or we *(do) dream, Sir,
Every thing is work'd by steam, Sir,
In my young days when I was little,
The only steam came from the kettle,
Now in two or three hours, or shorter
You may go by steam across the water,
And I do think that very soon,
You may go to France in a steam balloon.
Then in our farm yard our hens would lay,
Producing eggs the natural way,
Then fondly sitting on and sticking,
Until each egg produced a chicken,
But now there's a man who swears & vows and
Says chickens he can hatch by thousands (*thousand)
And all by steam which so fast he reckons,
He'l supply all-- with ducks and chickens.
When all over England's happy island
Churches and Chapels were built on dry land,
And then on Sundays folks so gay there
Would go to then, and they would pray there,
But now at novelties people grapple
They have swimming churches and floating chapels
The next they'l have I seem to dream,
Cast iron Parsons to preach by steam.
When all young men they act'd wise in,
Getting up to see the larks arising,
And could unless I'm much mistaken,
Eat to their breakfast a pound of *(fat) bacon,
And now *(over) Toms and Jerrys gay, Sir,
See Larks by night and not by day, Sir,
Get into rows and have long parleys,
And to save their bacon *(floor) the Charleys.
When young folks then they went a Wooing,
Kept to themselves what they were doing,
And did contrive their Love to smother,
Quite unknown to father or mother,
But then by the new marriage Act so scarish,
They told the affair to all the Parish,
Took affidavits and what was more, Sir,
Their names they stuck on the church door, Sir.
When every man whether wise or ninny,
Was pleased at the sight of a good old Guinea,
The front of it had King George's face on
And the back the arms and good old spade ace on
And now the sovereign I can tell you,
They are not worth so much in value;
And there St. George without a Rag on,
Galloping over an ugly dragon.
This very place that's now cover'd over,
Was a Field of wheat or perhaps of clover,
Two or three trees for the cattle to get under,
Out of the way of lightning and thunder,
No sound was heard but the small birds singing
Except sometimes the church bells Ringing,
But now those birds far away are fled,
And we are the birds that sing instead.
Bodleian Library, Ballads Catalogue 2806 c.17(151), c. 1837, J. Wheeler, Manchester.
*()- corrected or added from copy printed by Evans in Chester, no date, 2806 c.17(152).
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