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Title: The Praise Of A Dairy
Author: Anonymous (Poetry's author) [
More Titles by Anonymous (Poetry's author)]
[This excellent old country song, which can be traced to 1687, is sung to the air of Packington's Pound, for the history of which see Popular Music.]
In praise of a dairy I purpose to sing,
But all things in order, first, God save the King! {1}
And the Queen, I may say,
That every May-day,
Has many fair dairy-maids all fine and gay.
Assist me, fair damsels, to finish my theme,
Inspiring my fancy with strawberry cream.
The first of fair dairy-maids, if you'll believe,
Was Adam's own wife, our great grandmother Eve,
Who oft milked a cow,
As well she knew how.
Though butter was not then as cheap as 'tis now,
She hoarded no butter nor cheese on her shelves,
For butter and cheese in those days made themselves.
In that age or time there was no horrid money,
Yet the children of Israel had both milk and honey;
No Queen you could see,
Of the highest degree,
But would milk the brown cow with the meanest she.
Their lambs gave them clothing, their cows gave them meat,
And in plenty and peace all their joys wore complete.
Amongst the rare virtues that milk does produce,
For a thousand of dainties it's daily in use:
Now a pudding I'll tell 'ee,
And so can maid Nelly,
Must have from good milk both the cream and the jelly:
For a dainty fine pudding, without cream or milk,
Is a citizen's wife, without satin or silk.
In the virtues of milk there is more to be mustered:
O! the charming delights both of cheesecake and custard!
If to wakes {2} you resort,
You can have no sport,
Unless you give custards and cheesecake too for't:
And what's the jack-pudding that makes us to laugh,
Unless he hath got a great custard to quaff?
Both pancake and fritter of milk have good store,
But a Devonshire white-pot must needs have much more;
Of no brew {3} you can think,
Though you study and wink,
From the lusty sack posset to poor posset drink,
But milk's the ingredient, though wine's {4} ne'er the worse,
For 'tis wine makes the man, though 'tis milk makes the nurse.
Footnotes:
{1} This elastic opening might be adapted to existing circumstances by a slight alteration:-
The praise of a dairy to tell you I mean,
But all things in order, first God save the Queen.
The common copies print 'God save the Queen,' which of course destroys the rhyme.
{2} This is the reading of a common stall copy. Chappell reads -
'For at Tottenham-court,'
which is no doubt correct, though inapplicable to a rural assembly in our days.
{3} Brew, or broo, or broth. Chappell's version reads, 'No state you can think,' which is apparently a mistake. The reading of the common copies is to be preferred.
{4}No doubt the original word in these places was SACK, as in Chappell's copy--but what would a peasant understand by SACK? Dryden's receipt for a sack posset is as follows:-
'From fair Barbadoes, on the western main,
Fetch sugar half-a-pound: fetch sack, from Spain,
A pint: then fetch, from India's fertile coast,
Nutmeg, the glory of the British toast.'
Miscellany Poem, v. 138.
[The end]
Anonymous's poem: Praise Of A Dairy
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