The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79616   Message #1443535
Posted By: Jim Dixon
25-Mar-05 - 11:47 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Bee Proffers Honey but Bears a Sting
Subject: Lyr Add: PARODY ON THE BEE PROFFERS HONEY
The Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads has this both as a typeset broadside and as an engraving. I wish I understood the slang better.

PARODY ON THE BEE PROFFERS HONEY
(London, 1812)

A kid of a boozy staggering mien
On a long-eared donkey came.
In his hat was a slaughter-house candle seen,
For slaughtermen knows no shame.
And he tapped at a fish-lady's door with glee,
Who'd been crying of sprats near and far,
And cried, "Moll Dab, come get drunk with me,"
But she promised his singing to mar
With "Fol-de-rol, tol-de-rol, hubbaboo, whack,
If you don't make a bolt, I'll tip you a crack."

A kid with his eyes beat black in a row
On his shoeless feet came by,
And he saw the fair damsel fulfilling her vow
By bunging the slaughterman's eye,
But he roguishly said, "If a lark you love,
And would morrish the fish-fag afar,
My bottom and science I'm willing to prove,
And the phiz of a scout quickly scar.
With fol-de-rol, tol-de-rol, hubbaboo, whack,
Oh, I am the boy for a mill or a crack!"

The boozy kid got milled that day,
If he never got milled before,
And the black-eyed kid cut a swell, they say,
With the apron the slaughterman wore.
The fish-fag he wooed, but she smacked his face,
And he to St. Giles's went far,
Where the song and the dance at midnight gave place
To a row and a general spar.
With fol-de-rol, tol-de-rol, hubbaboo, whack,
Oh, they are the boys for a mill or a crack!"

[Phiz = physiognomy = face.]