[This version is obviously a bit corrupt. 2nd and 3rd verses don't agree about the mercury.]

The Buck's Elegy

As I was walking down Covent Garden,
Listen awhile, and the truth I'll relate,
Who should I meet but my dearest comrade,
Wrapt up in flannel, so hard was his fate.

Had I but known what his disorder was,
Had I but known it, and took it in time,
I'd took pila cotia, all sorts of white mercury,
But now I'm cut off in the height of my prime.

Doctors take away your mercury bottles,
For I am going to draw my last breath,
And into my coffin throw handfuls of funeral fine [No
[should be 'lime', to cover smell]
Let them all see that I die a sad death.

When I am dead wrap me up in funeral fine,
Pinks and fine roses adorning my head,
Come all gallows whores that do mourn after me,
Let them all follow me unto my grave.

There is Capt.---, and likewise Capt. Townsend.
These are the men that shall hold up my pall;
Come draw up your merrymen, draw them in rank and file,
Let them fire over me when I lay low.

Come bumble your drums, bumble them with crapes of black,
Beat the dead march as we go along,
Come draw up your merry men, draw them in rank and file,
Let them fire over me when I lay low.

From Holloway and Black, 'Later English broadside Ballads', I, #17, where references to traditional versions of the British Isles are given. I don't seem to have a copy of "The Unfortunate Rake" version. The Irish tune "The Unfortunate Rake" is in Crosby's 'Irish Musical Repository', but it does not sound to me to be at all related to America tunes to "Tom Sherman's Barroom", "St. James Infirmary (or Hospital)" or "Streets of Loredo", that I have heard.