4. Folk Songs Were Extremely Obscene
Many older folks today complain about the lewd nature of today’s music. However, many of today’s rappers and pop stars had nothing on the troubadours of the Regency Era who sang songs that could positively make you blush. A favorite folk song of the era was “A Lusty Young Smith.” It is a rather frank depiction of a tryst between a married woman and a young blacksmith, with one surprisingly explicit verse describing the frequency of the encounter saying,
Six times did his iron by vigorous heating,
Frow soft in her forge in a minute or so,
And as often was hardened, still beating and beating,
But each time it softened, it hardened more slow.
With a jingle bang, jingle bang, jingle bang, jingle,
With a jingle bang, jingle bang, jingle, hi ho!
Another rather raunchy folk song of the period was “The Trooper Water His Nagg” which was a humorous story of a man stopping to water his horse and eventually whetting his appetite with the innkeeper’s daughter. The ribald end of the song is the man in woman discussing what to do together in bed, with the lines:
“But what is this hangs under his chin?”
“‘Tis the bag he puts his Provender in.”
Quoth he, “What is this?” Quoth she,” ‘Tis a well
Where Ball, your Nag can drink his fill.”
“But what if my Nag should chance to slip in?”
“Then catch hold of the grass that grows on the brim.”
“But what if the grass should chance to fail?”
“Shove him in by the head, pull him out by the tail.”
