A Budg and Snudg Song [Notes] [1676 and 1712]
[From A Warning for Housekeepers… by one who was a prisoner in Newgate 1676. The second version from the Triumph of Wit (1712)].
I
The budge it is a delicate trade, [1]
And a delicate trade of fame;
For when that we have bit the bloe,[2]
We carry away the game:
But if the cully nap us, [3]
And the lurries from us take, [4]
O then {they rub}{he rubs} us to the whitt [5]
{And it is hardly }{Though we are not} worth a make [6]
II
{But}{And} when we come to the whitt
Our darbies to behold, [7]
And for to (take our penitency)(do out penance there)
{And}{We} boose the water cold. [8]
But when that we come out agen
[And the merry hick we meet] [9]
We (bite the Cully of; file off with) his cole [10]
As (we walk; he pikes) along the street.
III
[And when that we have fil’d him [11]
Perhaps of half a job; [12]
Then every man to the boozin ken [13]
O there to fence his hog; [14]
But if the cully nap us,
And once again we get
Into the cramping rings], [15]
(But we are rubbed into; To scoure them in) the whitt.
IV
And when that we come (to; unto) the whitt,
For garnish they do cry; [16]
(Mary, faugh, you son of a whore; We promise our lusty comrogues)
(Ye; They) shall have it by and bye
[Then, every man with his mort in his hand, [17]
Does booze off his can and part,
With a kiss we part, and westward stand,
To the nubbing cheat in a cart]. [18]
V
{But/And} when {that/—-} we come to {Tyburn/the nubbing cheat}
For {going upon/running on} the budge,
There stands {Jack Catch/Jack Ketch}, that son of a {whore/bitch}, [19]
That owes us all a grudge.
{And/For} when that he hath {noosed/nubbed} us, [20]
And our friends {tips/tip} him no cole, [21]
{O then he throws us in the cart/He takes his chive and cuts us down}, [22]
And {tumbles/tips} us into {the/a} hole.
[An additional stanza is given in Bacchus and Venus (1737), a version which moreover contains many verbal variations]. [23]
VI
But if we have a friend stand by,
Six and eight pence for to pay,
Then they may have our bodies back,
And carry us quite away:
For at St Giles’s or St Martin’s,
A burying place is still;
And there’s an end of a darkman’s budge,
And the whoreson hath his will.
[1: Sneaking into houses and stealing anything to hand] [2: Accomplished the theft] [3: fellow catches] [4 swag [properly money]] [5: take us to Newgate; [Notes]] [6: halfpenny] [7: fetters] [8: drink] [9: countryman] [10: steal his money] [11: robbed] [12: half a guinea] [13: ale-house] [14: spend a shilling] [15: Handcuffs and leg-shackles] [16: “footing”] [17: whore] [18: gallows] [19: Notes] [20: hung] [21: give no money] [22: knife] [23: Notes]