The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41977   Message #3052172
Posted By: Jim Dixon
12-Dec-10 - 10:29 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Back and Sides Go Bare
Subject: Lyr Add: BACK AND SIDE GO BARE
This version is of interest because it has the original spelling, as well as more verses than the last version.

From The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 1 edited by Alexander Dyce (London: Thomas Rodd, 1843), page vii:

I [Alexander Dyce] take the present opportunity of giving from a MS. in my possession a much fuller copy than has hitherto appeared of the celebrated song which opens the second act of Gammer Gurtons Nedle, and which Warton calls "the first chanson à boire or drinking-ballad, of any merit, in our language." Hist. of E. P. iii. 206. ed. 4to. The comedy was first printed in 1575: the manuscript copy of the song, as follows, is certainly of an earlier date:

[CHORUS] backe & syde goo bare goo bare
bothe hande & fote goo colde
but belly god sende the good ale inowghe
whether hyt be newe or olde.

[1] but yf that I
maye have trwly
goode ale my belly full
I shall looke lyke one
by swete sainte Johnn
were shoron agaynste the woole
thowthe I goo bare
take yow no care
I am nothynge colde
I stuffe my skynne
so full within
of joly goode ale & olde.

[2] I cannot eate
but lytyll meate
my stomacke ys not goode
but sure I thyncke
that I cowde dryncke
with hym that werythe an hoode
dryncke ys my lyfe
althowgthe my wyfe
some tyme do chyde & scolde
yete spare I not
to plye the potte
of joly goode ale & olde.

[3] I love noo roste
but a browne toste
or a crabbe in the fyer
a lytyll breade
shall do me steade
mooche breade I neuer desyer
Nor froste nor snowe
Nor wynde I trow
Canne hurte me yf hyt wolde
I am so wrapped
within & lapped
with joly goode ale & olde.

[4] I care ryte nowghte
I take no thowte
for clothes to kepe me warme
have I goode dryncke
I surely thyncke
nothynge canne do me harme
for trwly than
I feare noman
be he neuer so bolde
when I am armed
& throwly warmed
with joly good ale & olde.

[5] but nowe & than
I curse & banne
they make ther ale so small
god geve them care
& evill to faare
they strye the malte & all
sooche pevisshe pewe
I tell yowe trwe
not for a c[r]ovne of golde
ther commethe one syppe
within my lyppe
whether hyt be newe or olde.

[6] good ale & stronge
makethe me amonge
full joconde & full lyte
that ofte I slepe
& take no kepe
frome mornynge vntyll nyte
then starte I vppe
& fle to the cuppe
the ryte waye on I holde
my thurste to staunche
I fyll my paynche
with joly goode ale & olde.

[7] and kytte my wyfe
that as her lyfe
lovethe well good ale to seke
fall ofte drynkythe she
that ye maye se
the tears ronne downe her cheke
then dothe she troule
to me the bolle
as a goode malte worme sholde
& saye swete harte
I have take my parte
of joly goode ale & olde.

[8] They that do dryncke
tyll they nodde & wyncke
even as good fellowes shulde do
they shall notte mysse
to have the blysse
that good ale hathe browghte them to
& all poore soules
that skowre blacke bolles
& them hathe lustely trowlde
god save the lyves
Of them & ther wyves
wether they be yonge or olde.