Come, All Ye Brisk Young Batchelors NOME, all ye brisk young batchelors, C That wish to have good wives; I'd have you be precautious, How you spend your lives. For women are as various, As the fish are in the sea; They're ten times more precarious, When you first begin to court them, And you will think them Full worthy of your love; But when you do get married, The case is altered then; For you will find, my friend, They can let loose their tongues! Now Aristotle chose A most commodious wife, But soon he found out That 'twas all a hum. You must not stay to pick them, But take them as they come! Blank or prize 'tis all a chance, Shut your eyes and then advance! There was a victim in a cart, One day for to be hung; And his reprieve was granted, And the cart was made to stand: "Come marry a wife and save your life!" "Oh why should I corrupt my life?" "For here's a crowd of every sort, And why should I prevent the sport? The wife's the worst; drive on the cart!" TH HERE was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile; He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse, And they all liv'd together in a little crooked house. L ITTLE blue Betty lived in a den, She sold good ale to gentlemen: And little blue Betty hopp'd away. She hopp'd upstairs to make her bed, And she tumbled down and broke her head. |