A Mort’s Drinking Song [Notes]
[From A Jovial Crew, by RICHARD BROME: Enter Patrico with his old wife with a wooden bowle of drink. She is drunk. She sings:—]
I
This is bien bowse, this is bien bowse, [1]
Too little is my Skew. [2]
I bowse no lage, but a whole gage [3]
Of this I’ll bowse to you.
II
This bowse is better than rom-bowse, [4]
It sets the gan a-gigling, [5]
The autum-mort finds better sport [6]
In bowsing than in nigling. [7]
This is bien bowse, etc.
[She tosses off her bowle, falls back and is carried out.]
[1: strong ale] [2: cup or platter] [3: water; pot] [4: wine] [5: mouth] [6: wife] [7: fornicating]