The Romany Rye

Song - Piramus of Rome -

partly sodden. I dined that day with Mr. Petulengro, and his wife and family, Ursula, Mr. and Mrs. Chikno, and Sylvester and his two children. Sylvester, it will be as well to say; was a widower, and had consequently no one to cook his victuals for him, supposing he had any, which was not always the case, Sylvester's affairs being seldom in a prosperous state. He

elebrated for his skill in playing on the fiddle. During the dinner a horn filled with ale passed frequently around; I drank of it more than once, and felt inspirited by the draughts. The repast concluded, Sylvester and his children departed to their tent, and Mr. Petulengro, Tawno, and myself getting up, went and lay down under a s

G The PO

S. CH

hoon ye Ro

the pus ab

ow we drab

ow we drab

the drab-

th there of

the swety 65

e'll drab

e a drab

e kairs th

jaws to the

a beti

poggado

baulo ther

e pens in

odoi opre

ulo he wil

o he wil

coliko

o the fa

and mang

nd mang hi

airs, and s

in the rar

him on t

o the tan

toves the

the wendro

no drab's

there's ke

truppo well

or at the

a kosko

Romano

engro 69 ki

juva 70 gil

Romano

the Roma

the following manner, in my y

lads, who are seated

how we poison the pork

the p

f the poison monger,

, and when we return t

ker; we will try an

ison, and then we take

g a bit of victuals, a

and then we say in Ro

e dirt, and the porker

oon will

e will return to the f

the body of t

we do; the porker diet

porker, and carry to

e inside 72 well, t

there's no bane within

hin

body well, send for al

anquet, a merr

ddle plays, he plays;

t Roman ditty; now

e BROKEN C

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omany chi 74

dye mi shom

76 kair'd

chi, miry

dye a

7 rye, a g

r 79 pre a p

sos kerdo

e vassavi

from miry t

chal kair'd

penn'd ke t

n a vassav

ie 83 rat t

s, brother,' said Mr. Petulengro,

emarkable songs. I say, Jasper, I hope yo

e have, brothe

us practice, to say nothin

has no la

ays said so, but you are not necess

ou we had been

Mrs. Chikno sang a song about drabbing baulor, so I naturall

suppose, after seeing that dinner of pork, and hearing that song, that we had been drabbin

m very gl

n hardly be expected to be. We have no reason to drab baulor at present, we have money and credit; but necessity has no l

ompulsatory deeds? Look at the poetry of Scotland, the heroic part founded almost entirely on the villainous deeds of the Scotch nation; cow-stealing, for example, which is very little better than drabbing baulor;

r a word of common-sense; you were talking of the Scotch, broth

Romany, Jasper? Oh dear, but you

do you think of a Scotchman turnin

his nose at Piramus's fi

hat I most dis

ss it be the co

ble, it's a beggar on

ean by a begga

rticularly Leviathan - you know Leviathan, she is not here now, but some miles distant, she is our best singer, Ursula coming next. So the lady said she should like to hear Leviathan sing, whereupon Leviathan sang the Gudlo pesham, 86 and Piramus played the tune of the same name, which, as you know, means the honeycomb, the song and the tune being well entitled to the name, being wonderfully sweet. Well, everybody present seemed mighty well pleased with the song and music, with the exception of one person, a carroty-haired Scotch body; how he came there I don't know, but there he was; and coming forward, he began in Scotch as broad as a barndoor, to find fault with the music and the song, saying that he had never heard viler stuff than either. Well, brother, out of consideration for the civil gentry with whom the fellow had come, I held my peace for a long time, and in order to get the subject changed, I said to Mikailia in Romany, 'you have told the ladies their fortunes, now tell the gentlemen theirs, quick, quick - pen lende dukkerin. 87 Well, brother, the Scotchman, I suppose, thinking I was speaking ill of him, fell into a greater passion than before, and catching hold of the word du

severe on the S

t like our songs; what are his own? I understand them as little as he mine; I have heard one or two of them, and pretty rubbish they seemed. But the best of the joke is, the fellow's finding fault with Piramus's fiddle - a chap from the

ndeed, they have been a long time pensioners of England

; then there's Ambrose 88 and Sylvester; then there's Culvato, which

name, Pakomovna, then th

her, there'

great poet of Spain, how w

named after a ship, so don't make a wonder o

llia and Lydia, Curlanda, and Orlanda

ife get her nec

best, Jaspe

, and sleeps in Coggeshall churchyard. She got it from her mother, who also died very old, an

uld they h

tleman who had travelled much, once told me that he had

got them from the Papists, in the times of Popery, but where did you get such a name as Piramus, a name of Grecian roma

Slavonian

ich is the Russian, and from which the word slave is ori

r crallis at the time of the peace; he w

word. I saw something like it in a lil 90 called "Voltaire's Life of Charles.

m posed,

very little abo

you things about us which are not exactly true, simply to make a fool of you brother. You will say that was wrong; perhaps it was. Well, Sunday wil