The Marlboro Medley MSS

The Marlboro Medley MSS

Song text from VFC2003-0007 Margaret MacArthur Collection. Marlboro Medley MSS.

Greenleaf, Stephen (Scribe)

VFC2003-0007 Margaret MacArthur Collection. Vermont Folklife Archive, Vermont Folklife, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America.

Images © 2018 Vermont Folklife Center

vfc2003-0007_marlboro-medley-im001

vfc2003-0007_marlboro-medley-im002

vfc2003-0007_marlboro-medley-im003

1787—The Marlboro Medley, — tune Black Joke

When Marlboro Merchants set out for Pedling,

Made lawful by custom, (let none be meddling)

Barter is legal when trading for grain. —

With Wherry’s & Horses, see how they turn out,

Each Pedlar taking his different rout

With notions & things both curious & common,

To please Men & Children & gratify Women,

Which I shall here attempt to name. —

Their Budgets consist of variety —

There’s no two Pungs whose loads agree,

Each Pedlar hath his different ware, —

Whirls & spindles, Jews harps & thimbles,

Shoemakers Lasts & Peg-awls & wimbles,

Dippers & Noggins & Cann’s to make grog in

To barter for corn— “Have you any to spare” ?

Here comes the Bowls & wooden dishes,

Sleek looking trouts, “most exelent fishes”—

From Marlboro’ ponds & holes in the Brook —

Where in winter, a fishing they go,

Up to their waist-bands thro the snow,

There, thro’ the ice they cut a hole,

Then, they fish without a pole—

Dexterous Anglers with a hook. —

Lo Hog-yoaks, Goose-Y[o]aks, Taps & fassets

(And Tools to make them, Jack-knives and Hatchets)

To hamper Your piggs, Your Geese, and draw beer, —

With parchment screens to clean Flax-seed

Chees-tongs, wooden fans & weaver’s Reed’, —

Great spinning wheels & Swifts & Reels

And Snow-shoes strung from Toe to heel

To run on the crust & catch the Deer.—

“Come buy our Bread-trophs, buy our sieves,

To sift your meal from bran & shives, —

Different sorts both hide & hair,—

Half-Bushels and Pecks (all made by guess,)

Two Quart Dippers, (a thousand or less,)

Poaks, Ox-Yoaks, & hopples for Horses,

Straw-hats & Bonnetts for Lads & Lasses,

Good as the best, the Gentry wear.” —

Now comes the Baskets & the Rakes

Enough to supply the Thirteen States

Besides a large pile of new made Chairs. —

Pails, Pipkins & Tubs, for washing & brewing

Great wooden-platters to take up your stew in

Brooms, Dye-pots & Keelers, salt-mortars, & pestles,

Pudding-sticks, Ladles, whip-stocks & whistles,

Beside, wooden spoons as plenty as hairs. —

Here comes the Turnips & fine Bobbin-lace,

Braided-bark mittens, (your hands to case,)

A rare invention, every one says, —

Saddle-tree-woods & Birch-barrel-bottles,

Shoe-make[rs] spools & Iron-wood shuttles,

Besoms & oven-lids, (handy when baking).

Boxes for flour & Tray’s to make Cake in

And Wickopy stay-tape to lace up the Stays—

But now we must leave the ingenious Mechanic,

And sing how Root Doctors pursue their Botanic-

al Rambles thro Forrests o'er Hills & the Plain.

To dig blue Cohosh and sarsaparilla

Green Pettymorrel and purple a[n]geli-

ca Snake-root & Ginseng & modest Wild Piony,

The Root for Consumption & mending old China,

With Poke-root & Blood-root & Ellecampane. —

In early setling the Town, one Year

They’d no luck in hunting the Bear or the Deer,

No Bread to be had, Potatoes were scarce: —

Then had the Small-pox with all its infection

Have pass’d through the Town in every direction,

It could not have touched such dioted Men,

Where dozens could breakfast on Robin or Wren —

Disease disappointed must sneak from the place. —

But now they fare better, they’ve some thing to eat,

Various fowls & four footed meat,

Pa[r]tridge & Wood-cock & Wild Turkey-hen

Geese, Pigeons & Ducks, Skunks & Woodchucks,

Lusty Rackcoons well fatted with nutts,

Porcupines, squirrels & Rabbits & Hares,

For Beef they [have] moose, for Pork they have bears

And saddles of Venison now an then. —

A Pung or two more brings up the rear,

With Green Spruce-boughs for brewing Beer,

Rosin of Hemlock & Hack metack gum,

Balsam of Fir & sugar of maple,

Lime, Shingles and Salts, (The Marlboro’ staples)

Red-ochre, Sal-Petre, & Butter-nutt physic

Assmart-pills, a cure for the phthiysic

And Candy — Black-Strap* too stubborn to run.

And now my Medley draws nigh a close,

A rap on [my] knuckles, or wring of my Nose,

Shan’t hinder my Toast, — I’ll out with it here,

May Manufacturers long abound

In this Mechanical Pedling Town,

And may those Sons whose Sires are dead !

Have as good means to get their Bread

As their [ ] have had for many years.

(Transcription by Patience Young)