Jockie to the fair/The Happy Beggars

THE HAPPY BEGGARS.

Queen of the Beggars.

HOW blest are beggar-lasses,
who never toil for treasure!
Who know no care, but how to share,
each day successive pleasure.
Drink away, let’s be gay,
beggars still with bless abound,
Mirth and joy, ne’er can cloy,
while the sparkling glass goes round.

First Woman.

A fig for gaudy fashions,
no want of clothes oppresses;
We live at ease with rags and fleas,
we value not our dresses.
Drink away, &c.

Second Woman.

We scorn all Ladies washes,
with which they spoil each feature,
No patch and paint our beauty want,
we live in simple nature.
Drink away, lets be gay, &c.

Third Woman.

No cholic, spleen, or vapours,
at morn, or ev’ning teaze us;
We drink no tea, nor ratifia,
when sick, a dram can ease us.
Drink away, let's be gay, &c.

Fourth Woman.

What Ladies act in private,
by Nature’s soft compliance;
We think no crime, when in our prime,
to kiss without a licence.
Drink away, let’s be gay, &c.

Fifth Woman.

We know no shame or scandal,
the beggar law befriend us;
We all agree in liberty,
and poverty defends us.
Drink away, let’s be gay, &c.

Sixth Woman.

Like jolly beggar wenches,
thus, thus we drown all sorrow;
We live to-day, and ne’er delay
our pleasure till to-morrow.
Drink away, let’s be gay, &c.

FINIS.