The Young-Mans Answer to the
Merry Maid of Shoreditch her Resolution.
She saith the single Life it is the best,
It is so with a Man, it is confest:
If he marry a Woman of the worser sort,
No one will give her a good report.
So Young-men pray you now be wise,
You see what some Maids can devise;
They are as loose as Water in the River,
They wou'd undo a thousand Men together.
The Tune is, Hold Buckle and Thong together.
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DO you see how basely this young Maid,
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against young-men that she does clatter:
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For her scornful words that she hath said,
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I do intend now for to fit her:
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Young Maids they will both swear and lye,
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and ugly words sometimes they'l scatter,
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But young-men you must be very wise,
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and let them fret, it is no matter.
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Young-men you must not be too kind,
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for if you be they will undo you;
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And never let them know your mind,
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for then they'l seek to overthrow you:
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Till you have prov'd them to the full,
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that you may know their love the better,
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And never let them have their will,
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if they fret a while it is no matter.
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They say they can live single well,
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it is but till they can be fitted:
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But they can dissemble, I can tell,
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and they'l hav't as soon as they can get it:
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You may consider young-men first,
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they'r as false as Dice and Cards toth' matter,
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They'r quickly won, and sooner lost,
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believe not every Maidens clatter.
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There was a Maid the other day,
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its but a while since she came to London,
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That married a Felt-maker they say,
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and she prov'd with-child then with a young one.
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So often young-men are beguil'd,
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when they run on, and believe their clatter.
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They have ways enough to beguile a man,
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if they fret a while it is no matter.
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The second part, to the same Tune.
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ANd yet they'l say how bravely they
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live single, if they never marry:
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When young-men see it every day,
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that one or other does miscarry:
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I wonder Maids will be such fools,
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to make it good when a bad matter;
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But Young-men never be o're-rul'd,
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but let them fret, it is no matter.
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If you give them any little affront,
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that they do think is disloyal:
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Then night and day they then will hunt,
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to put another to the Tryal:
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They are as false as rotten Wood,
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I scorn a jot for to belye them:
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Such as those will never do a man good,
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that Man's undone that's ty'd to try them.
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But yet there's many an honest Maid,
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that is both true and loyal-hearted:
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It's pitty they should be badly wed,
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that good husbands and they should be parted.
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But dissembling Damosels have a care,
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they'r like a Bog that's ever sinking:
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They'l bring a Young-man in a snare,
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they'l make them blind instead of winking.
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There is a great difference in Maids,
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the better sort I do commend them,
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But for dissembling Girls that are misled,
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no man is worthy to befriend them:
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But young-men you must now be wise,
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to pick and chuse to gain the better;
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And do not believe every Maids lyes,
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but let them fret, it is no matter.
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Now young-men all I wish you well,
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be careful pray you in your chusing;
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Let the worser sort stay a while and mend,
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and in good honest Maids make no refusing:
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For an honest Girl is worth her weight in Pearl,
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when an ill-bred Girl will lye and flatter:
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By their carriage you may partly tell
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their condition, they'l make known the matter.
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FINIS.
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