I think I've got the 'pasting' figured out now, thanks Joe.

NTLRYST

THE NIGHT BEFORE LARRY WAS STRETCHED
To the tune of "To the Hundreds of Drury I Write"

The night before Larry was stretched,
The boys they all paid him a visit;
And bit in their sacks, too, they fetched,
They sweated their dads till they riz it:
For Larry was always the lad,
When a friend was condemned to the squeezer,
But he'd fence all the togs that he had
To help a poor friend to the sneezer.
And moisten his gab 'fore he died.

I'm sorry, now, Larry, says I,
To see you in this situation;
'Pon my conscience, my lad, I don't lie,
I'd rather it had been my own station!
Och hone! it's all over says he.
For the neckcloth I'm forced to put on,
And by the this time to-morrow you'll see
Your Larry will be dead as mutton
Bekays why, my dear, my courage was good.

The boys they came crowding in fast,
They drew all their stools round about him;
Six glims round his trap-case were placed,
He couldn't be well waked without them!
I axed if he was fit for to die,
Without having duly repented?
Says Larry, that's all in my eye,
It's only what gownsmen invented
To get a fat bit for themselves.

The cards being called for they played,
Till Larry found one of them cheated;
He made a smart stroke at his head,
(The boy being easily heated,)
Oh, by the holy, you teef,
I'll skuttle your nob with my daddle;
You cheat me because I'm in grief,
But soon I'll demolish your noddle
And leave you your claret to drink.

Then in came the priest with his book,
He spoke him so smooth and so civil;
Larry tipped him a Kilmainham look,
And pitched his wig to the devil;
Then stooping a little his head,
To get a sweat drop of the bottle,
And, pitiful sighing, he said,
Oh, he hemp will be soon round my throttle,
And choke my poor windpipe to death.

So moving these last words he spoke,
We all vented our tears in a shower;
For my part, I thought my heart broke,
To see him cut down like a flower.
On his travels we watched him next day,
Oh, the hangman, I thought I could kill him;
Not one word poor Larry did say,
Nor changed till he came to King William,
Then, my dear, his colour turned white.

When he came to the nubbling chit,
He was tucked up, so neat and so pretty;
The rumbler jogged off from his feet,
And he died with his face to the city!
He kicked, too, but that was all pride,
For soon you might see 'twas all over;
Soon after the noose was untied,
And at darkee we waked him in clover,
And sent him to take a ground sweat.

The song is in 'The Festival of Anacreon', 7th ed., (Part 2) p. 177, 1789 (and a later undated edition of 1790 or 1791), with tune direction "To the hundreds of Drury I write." (Copy, Folger Shakespeare Library) [The publisher's imprints and edition numbers of the very few issues of this work are fictitious. This '7th' edition is probably actually the 2nd. The c 1790-91 edition (Copy, Lib. of Congress) is also styled the '7th' edition, but is probably the 3rd, and contains some new songs not in the earlier '7th' edition. The true publisher is found to be William Holland, by noting the frontispiece of the 1789 edition, and comparison with 'Paddy Whack's Bottle Companion', 1791, which has the same typography and many of the same songs, including "The Night before Larry was stretched", p. 49.]

The song bears no attribution in 'Festival' but is attributed to a 'Curren' in 'The Universal Songster', III, 140, 1828. [J. Philpot Curran or J. W. Curren? In 'Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland', p. 29, James N. Healy attributes the song to a William Maher, (Hurlfoot Bill) but doesn't note when Maher lived.]

The tune is not an Irish one, but stems from the first line of an English song "The Bowman Prigg's Farewell." BUCEM lists four single sheet copies with music, all tentatively dated c 1740, and there is another copy in the Julian Marshal collection at Harvard. However, the tune "To the Hundreds of Drury I write" is in the ballad opera 'The Devil of a Duke', 1732, Air #4. 'Bowman Prig' is mentioned in song #22 of the ballad opera 'The Fashionable Lady', 1730, but this may not be a reference to the song. 'Bowman Prigg' is a cant term for a pick-purse.

Earliest 'Irish' tune I've seen is in Levy's 'The Dance Music of Ireland', First Series, n.d. (1858). A slightly variant copy of the latter is in O'Neill's 'Music of Ireland', #39.

Tune and 1st verse of "To the Hundreds of Drury I write" are in John Barry Talley's 'Secular Music in Colonial Annapolis', 1988. His bibliography leaves much to be desired. "Night before Larry" is just possibly a reworking of, or was at least inspired by, "To the hundreds of Drury", and I'd like to see a full copy of the latter. The music was bound in at the end of 'The Devil of a Duke' and, unfortunately, had been torn off the only copy I've found (Library of Congress) when it was bound together with some other works.

File below is ASCII for use in Basic's PLAY command, measure by measure. Play starts at 3rd line. Tune is 9/4 to P00 and 3/4 after. Then 3/4 part is for a chorus. p0 and p00 are my markers to indicate end of a strain. Play command interprets these as a pause of 0 duration. The duration numbers 12 in the next to last measure are for notes in triplets. With use of symbols definitions used in Basic PLAY command you can invert the strings to a musical score.

"Title: To the hundreds of Drury I write"
18
t120 o2 g8a8
b-4g4b-4a4g4f+4g4.a8b-4
mla4>c4mnc4c8c8
d4g4g4g4.b-8a4b-8g4.p0
b-4b-4.>c8d4.c8f2 a4b-4>c4c4c8c4
d4g4g4a4.b-8a4b-8g4.p00
b-8mlg8a8mnf+8g8a16b-16
>c16c16 b-8g8a8f+8g4
d8g8g8b-8a16b-16>c16 b-8.>f16mle8.d32e32mnf4
c16c16 g8>g8mlf8.d32e32mnf4
d12e12f12 g12d12c12 b-8g16b-16a8f+16a16g4

W.B.O.