a leary mot

sionnach commented on the word a leary mot

A Leary Mot

c. 1811

(A broadside ballad.)

I

Rum old Mog was a leary flash mot,

and she was round and fat,

With twangs in her shoes, a wheelbarrow too,

and an oilskin round her hat;

A blue bird’s-eye o’er dairies fine—

as she mizzled through Temple Bar,

Of vich side of the way, I cannot say,

but she boned it from a Tar—

Singing, tol-lol-lol-lido.

II

Now Moll’s flash com-pan-ion was a Chick-lane gill,

and he garter’d below his knee,

He had twice been pull’d, and nearly lagg’d,

but got off by going to sea;

With his pipe and quid, and chaunting voice,

“Potatoes!�? he would cry;

For he valued neither cove nor swell,

for he had wedge snug in his cly

Singing, tol-lol-lol-lido.

III

One night they went to a Cock-and-Hen Club,

at the sign of the Mare and Stallion,

But such a sight was never seen as Mog

and her flash com-pan-ion;

Her covey was an am’rous blade,

and he buss’d young Bet on the sly,

When Mog up with her daddle, bang-up to the mark,

and she black’d the Bunter’s eye.

Singing, tol-lol-lol-lido.

IV

Now this brought on a general fight,

Lord, what a gallows row—

With whacks and thumps throughout the night,

till “drunk as David’s sow�?—

Milling up and down—with cut heads,

and lots of broken ribs,

But the lark being over—they ginned themselves

at jolly Tom Cribb’s.

Singing, tol-lol-lol-lido.

July 14, 2009