The jovial beggars merry crew. When beggars that have coyn good store, yet still like vagrants live, they do but onely cheat the poor, 'tis pitty them to give Tune of, A figg for France. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription B25368 of text R229065 in the English Short Title Catalog. Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 5KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2018 B25368 Wing J1114 Interim Tract Supplement Guide C.20.f.10[51] ESTC R229065 ocm99888135

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 Early English books online text creation partnership. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 2, no. B25368) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 193193) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books; Tract supplement ; A6:2[51]) The jovial beggars merry crew. When beggars that have coyn good store, yet still like vagrants live, they do but onely cheat the poor, 'tis pitty them to give Tune of, A figg for France. 1 sheet ([1] p.) : ill. (woodcuts) Printed for I. Deacon at the Angel in Guilt-spur-street: without Newgate., [London] : [1684?] Place and date of publication from Wing CD-ROM, 1996. Verse: "There was a jovial beggar bold,". Imperfect: stained. Reproduction of original in the British Library.

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 eng Begging -- Poetry -- Early works to 1800. Vagrancy -- Poetry -- Early works to 1800. Ballads, English -- 17th century. Broadsides -- England -- 17th century. eebo The jovial beggars merry crew. : When beggars that have coyn good store, yet still like vagrants live, they do but onely cheat the poor, 'tis pitty th n/a 1684 2 685 5 0 0 0 0 0 72.99 D The rate of 72.99 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the D category of texts with between 35 and 100 defects per 10,000 words. 2014-03 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2014-09 Sampled and proofread 2014-09 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2015-03 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
THE Jovial Beggars Merry Crew . When Beggars that have Coyn good store , yet still like Vagrants live , They do but onely Cheat the Poor , 't is pitty them to give , Tune of , A figg for France .

depiction of beggar with wooden leg
depiction of crippled beggar in circle of people
depiction of man watching lame dog

THere was a jovial Beggar bold , Who often lodged in the Cold ; He fram'd himself a Wooden Leg , Which pitty mov'd as he did Beg ; And mournfully he did complain , That from his Cradle he was Lame : But tho' the world us Beggars call , A Beggars Trade 's the best of all . And several sorts of Bags have we , To serve us in Necessity : There 's one for Bread , & one for Salt , When Cripple-like we seem to Halt : A Bag for Bread , and one for Cheese , While we do eat of what we please : And tho' the world us Beggars call , A Beggars Trade 's the best of all . And when we see a Spark go by , O Lord preserve you Sir , we cry ; Take pitty on the Fatherless , That God Almighty may you bless : My broken Limbs good Sir , behold , E'ne kill'd with hunger , starv'd with cold But tho' the world us Beggars call , A Beggars Trade 's the best of all . 't is long since my poor Parents dy'd , That for me used to provide ; And Charity so cold is grown The like before was never known : Oh pray Sir , pitty my destress , I 'm Lame , half Blind , and Motherless ; Then let the world us Beggars call , A Beggars Trade 's the best of all .

depiction of woman begging with two infants
depiction of two children used for begging

If some will not pull out their Purse , In heart we oft lend them a Curse ; Tho' we like Beggars seem to live , We have more coyn than some that give If some kind hearts did know our store , They never woul● relieve us more : And tho' the wor●d us Beggars call , A Beggars , &c. And some that do like Cripples lye , Have got the art to whine and Cry ; Both Old and Young that do pass by , Take pitty on our Poverty : Some do us pitty , and are willing , To give us sixpence or a shilling : And tho' the world us Beggars call , A Beggars , &c. I was brought up to 'th Begging Trade , And I full many a face have made , Whereby I got my Master store , But now for him I 'le Beg no more ; I am set up for my own self , By Begging get good store of Pelf : And tho' the world us Beggars call , A Beggars , &c. Sometimes in Farmers Barns lye we , And sometimes in a Hollow Tree ; No Rent we pay , nor none we mean , Each Mort with us lives like a ●… een , And when the Sun at Night do●… ●hine , We go to telling of our Coyn : Then let the world us Beggars call , A Beggars , &c. No Plots against us can there be , Who Objects seem of Charity ; But should the honest Givers think , How we like Swine sometimes do Drink Their Charity they would forbear , Which sometimes fills our hearts with care ; And tho' the world us Beggars call , A Beggars , &c. Other Folks Children we do take , And for them beg for pittys sake ; But such deceitful Knaves we be , We speak not one word true in three : And tho' like Beggars we do live , Our lives to us Contentment give : Then let the world us Beggars call , A Beggars Life's the best of all . FINIS .

Printed for I. Deacon at the Angel in Guilt-spur-street ; without Newgate .