%ISOlat1; %ISOlat2; %ISOnum; %ISOpub; ]> Mirth for Citizens: Or, A Comedy for the Country. / A young Farmer his unfortunate marriage, / His wife is so churlish & currish in carriage / He married her for beauty, for's own delight / Now he repents it both day and night. / By physiognomy adviseth youngmen that at (Wenches skip, / To be sure to look before that they leap, / To leap at a venture, & catch a fall, / Raising the forehead breake horns and all. Miles, Abraham University of California - Santa Barbara The Early Modern Center English Broadside Ballad Archive (EBBA) Director Patricia Fumerton Associate Director Carl G Stahmer ?-? Early Modern Center, University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 05/18/2021 37229

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Patricia Fumerton Early Modern Center - English Department University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93105 United States of America EMail: pfumer@english.ucsb.edu

R216316 1 Ragged, torn, and true Old Simon the King Ragged, Torn, and True HEy boys my Fathers dead, / and what need I to fear, Sure thrice happy am I / if I obtain this Bride, / There's none can her come nigh / in all the whole world beside. Information in this section of the Source Description refers to the original ballad manuscript. 1: 65 Mirth for Citizens: Or, A Comedy for the Country. / A young Farmer his unfortunate marriage, / His wife is so churlish & currish in carriage / He married her for beauty, for's own delight / Now he repents it both day and night. / By physiognomy adviseth youngmen that at (Wenches skip, / To be sure to look before that they leap, / To leap at a venture, & catch a fall, / Raising the forehead breake horns and all. Mirth for Citizens: Or, A Comedy for the Country. A young Farmer his unfortunate marriage, His wife is so churlish & currish in carriage He married her for beauty, for's own delight Now he repents it both day and night. By physiognomy advises young men that at (Wenches skip, To be sure to look before that they leap, To leap at a venture, & catch a fall, Raising the forehead break horns and all. Miles, Abraham ?-? P. Brooksby

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 Early Modern Center Ballad Project Keyword Taxonomy advice affliction / health alcohol Americas animals / nature Bible / biblical figures buildings / architecture catastrophe children class clothing / appearance country / nation crime death economics / commerce entertainments family Featured folklore gender holidays / seasons infidelity labor / craft law London love maritime marriage military / war monstrosity mythology / Classical news nobility / court politics / government procreation punishment race / ethnicity religious concepts religious figures religious groups royalty rural life servitude sex / sexuality supernatural / magic travel trickery / deceit urban life vice violence virtue vulgar humor youth / age Library of Congress Subject Heading Taxonomy 5/18/2021 Santa Barbara, California, United States of America Ballads, English 17th century Broadsides, England 17th century 5/18/2021 12:23:59 PM XBallad Davila, Sarah Created XML Version of Ballad 5/18/2021 12:23:59 PM Transcription Supervisor McCants, Kristen Transcription of ballad manuscript 5/18/2021 12:23:59 PM Double-Key Comparison and Merging Stark, Nicole Transcription of ballad manuscript 5/18/2021 12:23:59 PM Transcriptionist Two Richter, Tal Transcription of ballad manuscript 5/18/2021 12:23:59 PM Transcriptionist One Mifflin, Natalie Transcription of ballad manuscript 4/30/2019 Bibliographer Jessica Zisa Initial Ballad Catalogue Record Created
<seg n="1" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">Mirth for Citizens:</hi></hi> <hi rend="italic">Or, <hi rend="bold">A Comedy for the Country.</hi></hi></seg> <seg n="2" rend="left"><hi rend="italic">Shewing</hi></seg> <lb/> <seg n="3" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">A young Farmer his unfortunate marriage,</hi></hi></seg> <seg n="4" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">His wife is so churlish & currish in carriage</hi></hi></seg> <seg n="5" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">He married her for beauty, for's own delight</hi></hi></seg> <seg n="6" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">Now he repents it both day and night.</hi></hi></seg> <lb/> <seg n="7" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">By physiognomy adviseth youngmen that at</hi></hi> <hi rend="italic">Wenches skip,</hi></seg> <seg n="8" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">To be sure to look before that they leap,</hi></hi></seg> <seg n="9" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">To leap at a venture, & catch a fall,</hi></hi></seg> <seg n="10" rend="left"><hi rend="italic"><hi rend="bold">Raising the forehead breaks horns and all.</hi></hi></seg> <lb/> <seg n="11" rend="left"><hi rend="italic">Tune of, <hi rend="bold">Ragged, torn, and true.</hi></hi></seg>
HEy boys my Fathers dead, and what need I to fear, With gold and silver I am sped, and have fifty pound a year: Then why should I be single, I will not lead the life; My gold and silver doth gingle, a wooing i'le go for a wife. Sure thrice happy am I if I obtain this Bride, There's none can her come nigh in all the whole world beside. A dainty fine Lass I know as ever England bred; Her skin is as white as Snow and her hair of a Crimson red: She lives but in our Town, She is vertuous, chaste, and wise, If I win her my joys are crown'd, besides a matchless prize. Sure [thrice happy etc.]
Ile get her Fathers good will, and Mothers too beside; Then next i'le try my skill to win this lovely Bride: I'le hug her and buss her and kiss her, in her lies all my pride: As Conventicle Dick served his sister, and tother thing too beside. Sure thrice happy etc. She hath two hundred pound to her portion and I a great deal of Land: Thus shall I come quick to promotion, for love I take her by the hand: But when I went to be married, I was in the height of my pride; Brave gallants on horseback was carried, to accompany me and my Bride. Sure thrice happy am I that I have obtained this Bride, There's none can to her come nigh [in all the whole world beside.]
O we had a gallant brave wedding indeed, and delicate dishes store, Those were welcome which were of our biding, but little we minded the poor: O we had both Sack and Canary, and the Musick bravely did play, O then I drank Sack and Sherry, I thought it would never be day: Sure thrice happy etc. When I and my Bride was in bed on my wedding-day at night, My fancies with pleasures she fed, for I had my full delight: She shewed me Venus School and with me she did daddle, But I a young puny fool, did quickly fall out of the saddle. Sure thrice happy etc. But then on the morrow morn, O she laughed me to scorn: O she drank sack and canary in Silver, and made me drink out of a horn, But when our wedding did cease and our brave banquets were done, My joys did quickly decrease, and my sorrows soon after begun, sure thrice happy etc. She told me she would be Master, and all the whole houshold guide, I told her it gave disaster, she said it should quickly be try'd:
Then against her I took stick, thinking she durst not come nigh, With a cudgel my bones she did lick, that for pardon I quickly did cry: sure thrice happy etc. She's grown so devilish curst, and in it she takes a pride, Makes nothing my head to burst and bang my bones beside: She makes me go to Plough, ditch, hedge, and thrash beside, And Jack come serve the Jow, to this slavery i'm ty'd. sure thrice happy etc. I do get up in a morn, and for her make a fire, i'm a Cuckold and laught to scorn, a holly-Crab pays my hire: Then her clothes she gets on her, Sugar-sops must ready be, And I forsooth wait on her, with bowing on my Knee: Sure thrice happy etc. At dinner she is stout, that by her I must now stand, To wait with a Napkin on my arm, and a Trencher in my hand: Some desire I may them pledge, and she is full of hate, If I kiss not my hand and make a leg, she lays me over the pate:
Another thing troubles my head and grieves me worse than this, When her Comrade is with her in bed I must reach her the pot to piss: I must draw her a cup of long tipple if it be a cold Frosty night, Or she beats me as lame as a Cripple, O the Bulls pizel doth me fright. Sure thrice happy etc. She kicks me about the house and puts me in bodily fears, I dare not say dun is the Mouse, she pinches me through the ears. She makes horns at me & doth slight me, and makes me a Jackanokes, She kicks me, she pricks me, and bites me O I feel her devilish strokes. Sure thrice happy etc. I wish young-men hereafter be not too quick in wooing their wives And beware of red-hair disaster, or repent it all days of their lives: Chuse a wench of a dark brown hair, and one of a middle size; Cole black will fill thee with care, and lodge others betwixt her thighs. Sure thrice happy am I if I obtain this Bride, There's none can her come nigh in all the whole World beside.
By Abraham Miles. The pretty by-names this young woman hath for her Husband. A simple Simon, a Tom Nichols, Jack Adams, a Muddy-brain'd Cuckold, a Hopping Dick, a Nicknindigo the Devils Turnspit. Here follows his potion of Dyet for several days of the week, of a Monday, if he riseth not betimes in the morning, instead of posset she comes up with a Holly Crab, and pays him about in his Shirt; on Tuesdays she bangs his back with a good Cudgel; on Wednesdays she kicks his breech, and lugs his Ears instead of feeding him with Beef and Souce; on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, she pays his back with a Bulls pizle, till he cries, O good Wife, I will never do so no more. Printed for P. Brocksby at the Golden Ball in Py-corner.