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AN OLD COURTIER AND A NEW, by                    
First Line: "with an old song, made by an ancient pate"
Last Line: "o, the king's young courtier!"
Subject(s): Inheritance & Succession


WITH an old song, made by an ancient pate,
Of an old Worshipful Gentleman, who had a great estate:
Who kept an old house at a bountiful rate,
And an old Porter to relieve the poor at his Gate.
Like an old Courtier of the Queen's,
And the Queen's old Courtier.

With an old Lady whose anger a good word assuages;
Who, every quarter pays her old servants their wages:
Who never knew what belongs to Coachmen, Footmen, and Pages;
But kept twenty thrifty fellows with blue coats and badges.

With an old Study filled full of learned books;
With an old reverend Parson, you may judge him by his looks!
With an old Buttery-hatch worn quite off the old hooks;
And an old Kitchen, which maintains half a dozen old cooks.

With an old Hall hung round about with guns, pikes and bows,
With old swords and bucklers, which have borne many shrewd blows,
With an old frisado coat to cover his Worship's trunk hose,
And a cup of old Sherry to comfort his copper nose.

With an old fashion, when Christmas is come,
To call in his neighbours with bagpipe and drum;
And good cheer enough to furnish every old room,
And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and a wise man dumb.

With an old Huntsman, a Falconer, and a kennel of hounds;
Which never hunted, nor hawked, but in his own grounds.
Who, like an old wise man, kept himself within his own bounds;
And, when he died, gave every child a thousand pounds.

But to his eldest son, his house and land he assigned;
Charging him, in his Will, to keep the same bountiful mind,
To be good to his servants, and to his neighbours kind:
But, in the ensuing ditty, you shall hear how he was inclined,
Like a young Courtier of the King's,
O, the King's young Courtier!

Like a young Gallant, newly come to his land,
That keeps a brace of creatures at's own command;
And takes up a thousand pounds upon's own band,
And lieth drunk in a new tavern till he can neither go nor stand.

With a neat Lady, that is fresh and fair,
Who never knew what belonged to good housekeeping, or care:
But buys several fans to play with the wanton air;
And seventeen or eighteen dressings of other women's hair.

With a new Hall, built where the old one stood;
Wherein is burned neither coal, nor wood:
And a new shuffle-board table, where never meat stood;
Hung round with pictures, which doth the poor little good.

With a new Study, stuffed full of Pamphlets and Plays;
With a new Chaplain, that swears faster than he prays;
With a new Buttery-hatch, that opens once in four or five days;
With a new French Cook, to make kickshaws and toys.

With a new fashion, when Christmas is come,
With a journey up to London. "We must be gone!
And leave nobody at home, but our new Porter John;
Who relieves the poor, with a thump on the back with a stone."

With a Gentleman Usher, whose carriage is complete.
With a Footman, a Coachman, a Page to carry meat.
With a Waiting Gentlewoman, whose dressing is very neat;
Who, when the Master hath dined, gives the servants little meat.

With a new honour, bought with his father's old gold;
That many of his father's old Manors hath sold.
And this is the occasion that most men do hold,
That Good Housekeeping is nowadays grown so cold.
Like a young Courtier of the King's,
O, the King's young Courtier!





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