Good Queen Bess

To my Muse give attention, and deem it not a mystery, If we jumble together, music, poetry, and history, The times to display in the days of good Queen Bess, Sir, Whose name and whose memory posterity may bless, Sir, Oh the golden days of good Queen Bess! Merry be the memory of good Queen Bess.

Then we laugh'd at the bugbears of Dons and Armadas, With their gun powder puffs and their blustering bravadoes, For how we knew to manage both the musket and the bow, Sir, And could bring down a Spaniard just as easy as a crow, Sir, O the golden days, &c.

Then our streets were unpav'd, and our houses were thatch'd, Sir, Our windows were latticed, our doors only latch'd Sir, Yet so few were the folks that would plunder or rob, Sir, That the hangman was starving for want of a job, Sir, O the golden days, &c.

Then our ladies, with large ruffs tied round about their necks fast, Would gobble up a pound of beef-steaks for their breakfast, While a close quill'd-up cap their noddles just did fit, Sir, And they truss'd up as tight as a rabbit for the spit, Sir, O the golden days, &c.

Then jerkins and doublets, and yellow worsted hose, Sir, With a huge pair of whiskers was the dress of our beaux, Sir; Strong beer they prefer'd too to claret or to hock, Sir, And no poultry they priz'd like the wing of an ox, Sir, O the golden days, &c.

Good neighbourhood then was as plenty too as beef, Sir, And the poor from the rich never wanted relief, Sir; While merry went the mill-clack, the shuttle and the plough, Sir, And honest men could live by the sweat of their brow, Sir, O the golden days, &c.

Then the folks ev'ry Sunday went twice at least to church, Sir, And they never left the parson or the sermon in the lurch, Sir, For they judg'd that the Sabbath was for people to be good in, And they thought it Sabbath-breaking if they din'd without a pudding, O the golden days, &c.

Then our great men were good, and our good men were great, Sir, And the props of the nation were the pillars of the state, Sir; For the sov'reign, and the subject one interest supported, And our powerful alliance by all powers then was courted. O the golden days, &c.

Thus renowned they liv'd all the days of their lives Sir, Bright examples of glory to us that survive Sir, May we their descendants, pursue the same ways Sir, That our PRESIDENT like Bess, may have his golden days Sir; And may a longer reign of glory and success Make his name eclipse the same of old Queen Bess.