The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #94598   Message #2579940
Posted By: Jim Dixon
02-Mar-09 - 11:10 PM
Thread Name: Origins: The Foggy Foggy Dew (bachelor)
Subject: Lyr Add: FOGGY DEW (from Bodleian)
I had a tough time deciding which thread to add this to!

From the Bodleian Library allegro Catalogue of Ballads, Harding B 11(394) "between 1819 and 1844":


FOGGY DEW.

Printed and sold by J, Pitts, Wholesale Toy and Marble Warehouse, 6, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials; Sold also by T. Goodwin, 204, White Chapel Road, near the London Hospital.

[1] When I was a batchelor, early and young,
I followed the weaving trade,
And all the harm ever I had done,
Was courting a servant maid;
I courted her the summer season,
And part of the winter too,
And many a night I rolled her in my arms
All over the foggy dew.

[2] One night as I lay on my bed,
As I laid fast asleep,
There came a pretty fair maid,
And most bitterly she did weep,
She wept, she mourned, she tore her hair—
Crying, alas what shall I do,
This night I'm resolved to come to bed with you,
For fear of the Foggy dew.

[3] It was in the first part of the night
We both did sport and play,
And in the latter part of the night,
She slept in my arms till day.
When broad day-light did appear,
She cried I am undone.
Hold your tongue you foolish girl
The foggy dew is done.

[4] Suppose that we should have a child,
It would cause us to smile;
Suppose that we should have another,
It would make us laugh awhile;
Suppose that we should have another,
And another one too;
It would make you leave off your foolish trick,
And think no more of the foggy dew.

[5] I love this young girl dearly,
I loved her as my life;
I took this girl and married her,
And made her my lawful wife;
I never told her of her faults,
Nor never intend to do,
But every time she winks or smiles
I think of the foggy dew.


[Another version, Harding B 11(2691), seems to have been cleaned up a bit.]