SHE WAS POOR BUT SHE WAS HONEST
Coll. by Robert Gordon, 1923

1
She was poor but she was honest,
Victim of a village crime,
Of the squire's guilty passion
And she lost her own good nyme.
2
Then she went right up to Lunnon
For to hide her ghastly shyme,
And she met another squire,
And she lost her nyme agayne.
3
She was poor but she was foolish,
Victim of a rich man's whim,
He seduced her, then he left her,
She'd a little child by him.
4
You'll find her in the theayter,
See her sitting in the stalls,
And at home an hour lyter,
Plying with some strynger's balls.
5
You'll see her in her limoosin
In the park, and people say
All the squires and nobby people
Stop to pass the time of day.
6
In a quiet country cottage,
There her aged parents live,
Drinking the champagne that she sends them
But they never can forgive.
7
You will find her in the gutter
Selling matches by the box.
For a tanner you can up her
Ten to one you get the pox.
8
See him passing in his carriage
With his fyce all wreathed in smiles.
See her sitting on the pyvement
Which is bloody bad for pyles.
9
See him passing to the Commons,
Making laws for rich and pore.
See her walking of [sic] the pyvements,
Nothing but a bloody whore.
10
It's the syme the whole world over,
It's the poor they always blyme,
And the rich, they takes their pleasures.
Isn't it a bloody shyme?

Pp. 129-130, with brief musical score, Ed Cray, Second Edition, The Erotic Muse, American Bawdy Songs, Univ. of Illinois Press.