Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Wit and mirth, or, Pills to purge melancholy > Volume 3

Pleasant and Divertive. 1 73
MEthinks the poor Town has been troubled too
long,
With Phillis and Chlons in every Song ;
By Fools who at once, can both Love and Dispair,
And will never leave calling them Cruel and Fair :
Which justly provokes me in Rhime to express,
The truth that I know of my Bonny black Bess.
This Bess of my Heart, this Bess of my Soul,
Has a Skin white as Milk, but Hair black as a Coal ;
She's plump, yet with ease you may span round her
Waste,
But her round swelling Thighs can scarce be embrac'd :
Her Belly is soft, not a word of the rest,
But I know what I mean, when I drink to the Best.
The Plow-man, and Squire, the Erranter Clown.
At home she subdu'd in her Paragon Gown,
But now she adorns the Boxes and Pit,
And the proudest Town Gallants are forc'd to submit :
All Hearts fall a leaping wherever she comes,
And beat Day and Night, like my Lord — s Drums ;
But to those who have had my dear Bess in their Arms,
She's gentle and knows how to soften her Charms
And to every Beauty can add a new Grace, •
Having learn'd how to Lisp, and trip in her pace :
And with Head on one side, and a languishing Eye,
To Kill us with looking, as if she would Dye.
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