The wooing Maid,
OR
A faire maid neglected,
Forlorne and rejected,
That would be respected:
Which to have effected,
This generall Summon
She sendeth in common,
Come Tinker, come Broomman,
She will refuse no man.
To the tune of, Isbe the dad ont.
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I Am a faire Maid
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if my glasse doe not flatter,
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Yet by the effects
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I can find no such matter:
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For every one else
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can have Suters great plenty,
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Most marry at fourteene,
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but I am past twenty.
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O if you lack a maid,
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take me for pitty.
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I see by experience,
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which makes me to wonder,
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That many have Sweethearts
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at fifteene, and under,
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And if they passe sixteen
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they think their time wasted,
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O what shall become of me,
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I am out-casted:
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O if you lack a maid,
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take me for pitty.
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I use all the motives
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my sex will permit me,
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To put men in mind,
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that they may not forget me:
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Nay sometimes I set
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my commission oth tenters,
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Yet let me doe what I will
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never a man venters.
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O if you lack a maid
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take me for pitty.
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When I goe to weddings,
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or such merry meetings,
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I see other maids
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how they toy with their swee-tings
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But I sit alone
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like an abject forsaken,
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Woes me for a husband
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what course shall be taken?
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O if you lack a maid
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take me for pitty.
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When others to dancing
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are courteously chosen,
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I am the last taken
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among the halfe dozen,
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And yet among twenty
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not one can excell me:
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What shall I doe in this case,
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some good man tell me.
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O if you lack a maid
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take me for pitty.
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The second part To the same tune.
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TIs said that one wedding
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produceth another,
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This I have heard told
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by my father and mother:
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Before one shall scape me,
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Ile goe without bidding,
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O that I could find out
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some fortunate wedding.
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O if you lack a maid
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take me for pitty.
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Sure I am unfortunate
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of all my kindred,
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Else could not my happinesse
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be so long hindred:
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My mother at eighteene
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had two sons and a daughter,
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And Im one and twenty,
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not worth looking after.
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Come gentle, etc.
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My sister thats nothing
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so handsome as I am,
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Had sixe or seven Suters,
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and she did deny them:
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Yet she before sixteene
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was luckily marryd,
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O Fates, why are things
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so unequally carryd?
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Come gentle, etc.
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My kinswoman Sisly
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in all parts mis-shapen,
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Yet she on a husband
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by fortune did happen,
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Before she was nineteene
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years old (at the furthest)
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Among all my Linage
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am I the unworthiest.
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Come gentle, etc.
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There are almost forty
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both poorer and yonger,
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Within few yeares marryd,
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(yet I must stay longer)
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Within foure miles compasse,
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O ist not a wonder,
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Scant none above twenty,
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some s[ix]teene, some under.
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Come gentle, etc.
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I hold my selfe equall
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with most in the parish,
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For feature, for parts,
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and what chiefly doth cherish,
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The fire of affection,
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which is store of money,
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And yet there is no man
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will set love upon me.
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O let me not die a maid,
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take me for pitty.
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Who ever he be
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that will ease my affliction,
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And cast upon me
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an auspicious affection;
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Shall find me tractable
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still to content him,
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That he of his bargaine
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shall never repent him.
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Come gentle, etc.
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Ile neither be given
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to scold nor be jealous,
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He nere shall want money,
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to drink with good fellows:
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While he spends abroad,
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I at home will be saving,
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Now judge, am not I a Lasse
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well worth the having?
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Come gentle, etc.
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Let none be offended,
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nor say Im uncivill,
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For I needs must have one,
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be he good or evill:
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Nay rather then faile
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Ile have a Tinker or Broom-man,
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A Pedler, an Inkman,
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a Mat man, or some man.
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Come gentle, come simple,
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come foolish, come witty,
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O let me not die a maid,
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take me for pitty.
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