The True Hearted Maiden (Glasgow, 1802)/The Gin Drinker's Frolic

by Anonymous

For other versions of this work, see The Gin Drinker's Frolic.

Text divider from 'The True Hearted Maiden', a chapbook printed in Glasgow in 1802

THE GIN DRINKER'S FROLIC.

As thro' Spitalfields one day I was walking,
A bunch of old women I heard there a talking;
It happened to be at a pawnbroker's door,
They were damning his eyes for a son of a whore.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

Says one, Here's my smock, and he won't take it in,
Tho' often for threepence I've pawn'd it for gin;
But now it is grown so ragged before,
That into the shop it shan't enter no more.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

Says one to the other, Then never mind that,
For two win I can yet get on my hat,
Tho' it got hit three halfpence one day in Ragfair,
It will pop for a groat, I vow and declare,
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

Then altogether away they did steer,
And at one another began for to jeer;
They caught hold of each other else they'd fallen down,
For the score that in gin they'd spent half a crown.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

Then away to old Areses, the truth to declare,
Where they pawn'd the hat was bought in Ragfair,
From thence to the pewter-pot in White's Row,
Where for gin all the whole groat it did go.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

Then away they did go into Red Lion Street,
Where one of the women her husband did meet;
You've been getting drunk, I've been forc'd to stand still,
Say or do what I please, you must have your will.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

Then on his back the poor man did take her,
And swore before right a cripple he'd make her;
So then, gentlemen, I came laughing away,
I thought I'd seen sport enough for the whole day.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.

He took her such a dig, in the kennel he threw her,
She stunk so with gin he could not sland o'er her;
There she did ly like a juniper sow,
She strove to get up, but could not tell how.
Derry down, down, hey derry down.