Does anybody? The human race has been trying to figure

Of all the occupations, A beggar's life's the best; For whene'er he's weary, He'll lay him down and rest. And a begging, &c.

I fear no plots against me, I live in open cell; Then who would be a king When beggars live so well? And a begging we will go, we'll go, we'll go; And a begging we will go!

(1) This is the same tune as FORTUNE MY FOE. - See POPULAR MUSIC OF THE OLDEN TIME, p. 162.

(2) This word seems to be used here in the sense of the French verb METTRE, to put, to place.

(3) The stall copies read 'Gamble bold.'

(4) In the Roxburgh Collection is a copy of this ballad, in which the catastrophe is brought about in a different manner. When the young lady finds that she is to be drowned, she very leisurely makes a particular examination of the place of her intended destruction, and raises an objection to some nettles which are growing on the banks of the stream; these she requires to be removed, in the following poetical stanza:-

'Go fetch the sickle, to crop the nettle, That grows so near the brim; For fear it should tangle my golden locks, Or freckle my milk-white skin.'

A request so elegantly made is gallantly complied with by the treacherous knight, who, while engaged in 'cropping' the nettles, is pushed into the stream.