The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #6258   Message #36395
Posted By: dick greenhaus
29-Aug-98 - 08:40 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Old Miner (from Maddy Prior)
Subject: RE: Maddy Prior's Lyrics: The Old Miner
Trepanning is the process of making a hole in something. It was once used much more generally than in the narrow surgical sense:

"Cease your funning
Toil and cunning
Never shall my heart trepan.
All these sallies
Are but malice
To seduce my constant man."
The Beggar's Opera, John Gay, 1728