The Cramp Songtext
von Stick in the Wheel

Lenten stuff is come to the town
The cleansing week comes quickly
You know well enough you must kneel down
Come on, take ashes trickly

That neither are good flesh nor fish
But dip with Judas in the dish
And keep a root not worth a rish, a rish

Herring, herring, white and red
Seek out such as be rotten
Though some be hanged, and some be dead
And some be yet forgotten

The time will come the discipline rod
Though idols dum make many odd
Will firk out some that fear not God, not God

Wallfleet oysters, salt and green
Are trim meats to be eaten
Trusty subjects to their queen
Need never to be beaten


And a salad, sure exceeds
And must procure digestion needs
That′s picked so pure it has no weeds, no weeds

New place, new, at every tide
This is the common craving
In every place let them be tried
That are of ill behaving

For such as of beyond say smell
The come too far to savour well
As I hear the common people tell, they tell

And as this lent time many seeks
For herbs and salads dainty
I never in my life saw leeks
In every place so plenty

For every man likes what he lust
And as he likes he puts his trust
So few or none be like be just, be just

Of nettles likewise there be store
In salads at this season
For men be nettled more and more
With paltry passing reason


And sum upon a nettle piss
That see not where the nettle is
And many a-one finds fault at this, at this

Then Jack-a-lent comes jostling in
With the headpiece of a herring
And says, "repent you of your sin
For shame, sirs, lay your swearing."

And to Palm Sunday does he ride
With sprouts and herrings by his side
And makes an end of Lenten tide, the tide