The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10100   Message #944623
Posted By: Jim Dixon
01-May-03 - 10:49 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Old Rosin the Bow / Rosin the Beau
Subject: Lyr Add: ROSIN, THE BEAU (from Bodleian)
Wow! That Bodleian is a great resource!

Transcribed by me from the broadside image at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads catalog # Johnson d.1773(p. 120v)

ROSIN, THE BEAU.

I have travelled this wide world over,
And now to another I'll go;
I know that good quarters are waiting,
To welcome old Rosin, the beau.
    To welcome old Rosin, the beau,
    To welcome old Rosin, the beau,
    I know that good quarters are waiting,
    To welcome old Rosin, the beau.

When I'm dead and laid out on the counter,
A voice you will hear from below,
Singing out whiskey and water
To drink to old Rosin, the beau.
    To drink, &c.

And when I am dead, I reckon
The ladies will all want to know--
Just lift the lid off the coffin,
And look at old Rosin, the beau.
    And look, &c.

You must get some dozen good fellows,
And stand them all round in a row,
And drink out of half gallon bottles,
To the name of old Rosin, the beau.
    To the name, &c.

Get four or five jovial young fellows,
And let them all staggering go
And dig a deep hole in the meadow,
And in it toss Rosin, the beau.
    And in it, &c.

Then get you a couple of tombstones,
Place one at my head and my toe;
And do not fail to scratch on it
The name of old Rosin, the beau.
    The name, &c.

I feel the grim tyrant approaching,
That cruel implacable foe,
Who spares neither age nor condition,
Nor even old Rosin, the beau.
    Nor even, &c.