Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England, page 169 by Anonymous
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othing, their cows gave them meat,
And in plenty and peace all their joys wore complete.
Amongst the rare virtues that milk does produce,
For a thousand of dainties it's daily in use:
Now a pudding I'll tell 'ee,
And so can maid Nelly,
Must have from good milk both the cream and the jelly:
For a dainty fine pudding, without cream or milk,
Is a citizen's wife, without satin or silk.
In the virtues of milk there is more to be mustered:
O! the charming delights both of cheesecake and custard!
If to wakes {63} you resort,
You can have no sport,
Unless you give custards and cheesecake too for't:
And what's the jack-pudding that makes us to laugh,
Unless he hath got a great custard to quaff?
Both pancake and fritter of milk have good store,
But a Devonshire white-pot must needs have much more;
Of no brew {64} you can think,
Though you study and wink,
From the lusty sack posset to poor posset drink,
But milk's the ingredient, though wine's {65} ne'er the worse, For 'tis wine makes the man, though 'tis milk makes the nurse.
Ballad: THE MILK-MAID'S LIFE.
[Of this popular country song there are a variety of versions. The following, which is the most ancient, is transcribed from a blackletter broadside in the Roxburgh Collection, entitled The Milkemaid'
s Life; or, a pretty new ditty composed and penned, the praise of the Milking-pail to defend. To a curious new tune called the Milke-maid's Dump. It is subscribed with the initials M. P.; probably those of Martin Parker.]
You rural goddesses,
That woods and fields possess,
Assist me with your skill, that may direct my quill,
More jocundly to express,
The mirth and delight, both morning and night,
On mountain or in dale,
Of them who choose this trade to use,
And, through cold dews, do never refuse
To carry the milking-pail.
The bravest lasses gay,
Live not so merry as they;
In honest civil sort they make each othe