Digital Tradition Mirror

The Riddle

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

The Riddle

My pretty maid fain would I know
What thing it is will breed delight,
That strives to stand yet can not go
That feeds the mouth that can not bite.

cho: With a humbledum grumbledum humbledum grumbledum
     Humbledum grumbledum hey,
     With a humbledum grumbledum humbledum grumbledum
     Humbledum grumbledum hey.

It is a pretty pricking thing
A pleasing and a standing thing
'Twas the truncheon Mars did use
A bed-ward bit which maidens choose

It is a shaft od Cupid's cut
'Twill serve to rove, to prick, to butt
There's never a maid, but by her will
Will keep it in her quiver still.

'Tis a Fryer with a bald-head
A staff to beat a cuckold dead
It is a gun that shoots point-blank
It hits betwixt a woman's flank

It has a head much like a mole's
And yet it loves to creep in holes
The fairest She that e'er took life
For love of this became a wife.

From Pills to Purge Melancholy, D'Urfey v. 4
RG
apr97

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!