MCP: Thanks. Those are the words from B&S. I'd sent them to the DB in April of '00. (There are also two other entries there, slightly diff from B&S but otherwise the same sets as each other, SHOEMAK2 & SHOEMAK3.) Because I'd mentioned the YD connection, the attached tune to the one I sent- SHOEMKKR in the DB is Yanky Doodle. Probably a big mistake. I thought I'd transcribed the B&S tune to go with it. But if you listen to the first line or so...

Here's the set from the HLR best as I can transcribe it:

             The Shoemaker [sic]

Me mother sent us to the skyul,                          [us=me, school]
        To learn to be a stocking-myaker,
But I was young and played the fule,
        And married with a shoemaker.
                Shoemaker, leather-cracker,
                Balls of wax and stinking water,
                Three rows of rotten leather,
                Whee would have a shoemaker.       [who]

His hands are like a cuddy's houghs,                  [pony's?; hooves?]
        His face is like the haigh-lowed leather, [high-low=embossed?]
His looks is like Aa devil know what,             [I]
        His hair is like a bunch of heather.
                Shoemaker, leather cracker,
                Balls of wax and stinking water,
                Three rows of rotten leather,
                Whee would have a shoemaker.

He sent us for a pint of wine,
        And I brought him a pint o' water,
He played me as good a trick,
        He made me shoes of rotten leather.
                Shoemaker, leather cracker,
                Balls of wax and stinking water,
                Three rows of rotten leather,
                Whee would have a shoemaker.