specific as “Should our marriage be an open mar-riage?”

I begged for my master, And got him store of pelf; But now, Jove be praised! I'm begging for myself. And a begging, &c.

In a hollow tree I live, and pay no rent; Providence provides for me, And I am well content. And a begging, &c.

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:-