Chapter CXXXVII

Up at Piccadilly oh!
The coachman takes his stand,
And when he meets a pretty girl,
He takes her by the hand;
Whip away for ever oh!
Drive away so clever oh!
All the way to Bristol oh!
He drives her four-in-hand.

CXXXVIII.

[The first line of this nursery rhyme is quoted in Beaumont
and Fletcher's _Bonduca_, Act v, sc. 2. It is probable also
that Sir Toby alludes to this song in _Twelfth Night_, Act
ii, sc. 2, when he says, "Come on; there is sixpence for you;
let's have a song." In _Epulario, or the Italian banquet_,
1589, is a receipt "to make pies so that the birds may be
alive in them and flie out when it is cut up," a mere device,
live birds being introduced after the pie is made. This may be
the original subject of the following song.]

Sing a song of sixpence,
A bag full of rye;
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie;

When the pie was open'd,
The birds began to sing;
Was not that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?

The king was in his counting-house
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and honey;

The maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes,
There came a little blackbird,
And snapt off her nose.

Jenny was so mad,
She didn't know what to do;
She put her finger in her ear,
And crackt it right in two.