For King George's sake.
If you won't give us one,
We'll take two;
Then ricket a racket
Your door shall go.
From Bampton:
Gunpowder Plot
Shall never be forgot.
A stick or a stake
For King George's sake.
Pray, Dame,
Give me a faggot.
If you don't give one,
I'll take two;
The better for me
And the worse for you.
[The following printed version may be compared with these:
The fifth of November,
Since I can remember.
Gunpowder, treason, and plot:
This was the day the plot was contriv'd,
To blow up the King and Parliament alive:
But God's mercy did prevent
To save our King and his Parliament.
A stick and a stake
For King James' sake?
If you won't give me one,
I'll take two.
The better for me.
And the worse for you!
This is the Oxfordshire song chanted by the boys when collecting sticks for the bonfire, and it is considered quite lawful to appropriate any old wood they can lay their hands on after the recitation of these lines.[1] If it happen that a crusty chuff prevents them, the threatening finale is too often fulfilled. The operation is called going a progging, but whether this is a mere corruption of prigging, or whether progging means collecting sticks (brog, Scot. Bor.), I am unable to decide." {{right|J. O. Halliwell, Popular Rhymes, 1849, pp. 253-4.]
- ↑ [Compare "Fifth of November Customs," infra, p. 185.—Ed.]
