From The Banquet of Thalia, Or, The Fashionable Songsters Pocket Memorial by Frederick Atkinson (York: Wilson, Spence and Mawman, 1790):


O GOOD ALE! THOU ART MY DARLING.

1. The landlord he looks very big
With his high cock'd hat and powder'd wig;
Methinks he looks both fair and fat,
But he may thank you and I for that.

CHORUS: For, O good Ale! thou art my darling,
Thou art my comfort night and morning.

2. The brewer brew'd thee in his pan,
And the tapster draws thee in his can;
So I with them will play my part,
And lodge thee next unto my heart.

3. And if my wife should thee despise,
By Jove I'll beat out both her eyes!
But if she loves me as I love thee,
A happy couple we shall be.

4. Thou oft hath made my friends my foes,
And often made me pawn my clothes;
But since thou art so near my nose,
Come up my friend—and down it goes.