The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170649   Message #4127127
Posted By: cnd
23-Nov-21 - 07:39 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Coachman's Whip
Subject: RE: Origins: Coachman's Whip
I was swinging by my local library tonight, which happened to have this book, so I went ahead and followed up on JohnH's lead.

Found in The Common Muse by Vivian De Sola Pinto and Allan Edwin Rodway (1957), pp. 290-291 (song cxliii), transcribed as printed.

THE JOLLY DRIVER

I am a jolly young fellow,
 My fortune I wish to advance,
I first took up to London,
 And I next took a tour to France,
I understand all kinds of servitude
 And every fashion so tight,
If you hire me as your coachman,
 I am a safe driver by night.

Chorus
So my darling I'll go along with you,
 Stick to you while I have life,
I Would rather ten times be your coachman
 Than tie<d> to a drunken old wife.

Up came a lady of fashion,
 And thus unto me did say,
If I hire you as my coachman,
 You must drive me by night and by day,
Ten guineas a month I will give you
 Besides a bottle of wine,
If you keep me in plenty of drink,
 I will drive you in a new fashion style.

She brought me into the kitchen,
 Where she gave me liquors so quick,
She told me drink that in a hurry,
 She wish'd to see my driving whip;
O when that she seen it
 She eyed it with a smile,
Saying, I know by the length of your lash,
 You can drive in a new fashion style.

She bid me get into her chaise box,
 And drive both mild and discreet,
And handle my whip with much judgment,
 And drive her quite through the street,
Three curls I gave to my cracker,
 And then I was up to her rigg, [rigg=ridge(?)
And the very first turn the wheel got,
 I broke the main-spring of her gig.

She brought me into the cellar,
 And gave me a bottle of wine,
She told me drink that in a hurry,
 As I had to drive her three miles;
She being a nice little young thing,
 And just in the height of her bloom,
And I being a dashing young fellow,
 I drove her nine times round the room.

My mistress being tired and weary,
 In order to take a rest,
She call'd for her waiting-maid, Sally,
 The maid that she loved the best,
Saying, Sally, we've got a good coachman,
 That understands driving in style,
And while my gig wheel is repairing,
 I'll let him drive you for a mile.

So now to conclude and finish,
 Driving I mean to give o'er,
Carriages, cars, gigs, and coaches,
 I ne'er will drive any more;
When the Ladies of honour all heard it.
 The truth they did declare,
They ne'er could meet with a coachman,
 That understood driving so fair.