From the Bodleian broadside collection, Harding B 27(52):


THE TAILOR'S BOY

A tailor's boy went out one night some candles for to bring,
And going into the chandler's shop, no one could find the twig.
He rapped; he bawled; he whistled; he called; no answer there was made.
He thought he heard a rap-tap-tap right above his head.

The tailor's boy being crafty, he slyly slipped upstairs.
Not one word of noise he made for fear of spoiling their affairs.
It's there he spied the shopman, John, just betwixt this mistress's thighs,
And they carried on with their rap-tap-tap; he beheld it with his eyes.

The job it being finished, and they began to rise,
To see the tailor's boy stand there it put them in surprise.
She says, "Young man, my counsel keep, and I will [repay] in kind,
And you may play on my rap-tap-tap whenever you have a mind."

She clapped her hand into her pocket and gave him eighteen pence,
Thinking that would stop his mouth for six or eight months hence.
She give to him a cucumber to stop his hungry maw,
And he's never to speak of the rap-tap-tap for such past time he saw.

All you young men has wanting wives and means for to leave home,
I pray you do take care of them and lock them up in a room.
They would kiss and toy with a sporting boy; I say they would not stop,
And before you go an English mile, they'd play on the rap-tap-tap.