The text comes from the third edition of Boswell’s Life (London, 1799). Please send corrections to Jack Lynch.
| Long-expected one-and-twenty, | ||
| Ling’ring year at last has flown; | ||
| Pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty, | ||
| Great *** ****, are now your own. | ||
| 5 | Loosen’d from the Minor’s tether | |
| Free to mortgage or to sell, | ||
| Wild as wind, and light as feather, | ||
| Bid the sons of thrift farewell. | ||
| Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies, | ||
| 10 | Ev’ry name that laughs at care: | |
| Lavish° of your grandsire’s guineas,° | extravagant — gold coins | |
| Shew° the spirit of an heir. | show | |
| All that prey on vice and folly | ||
| Joy to see their quarry fly; | ||
| 15 | Here the gamester,° light and jolly, | gambler |
| There the lender, grave and sly. | ||
| Wealth, my lad, was made to wander, | ||
| Let it wander as it will; | ||
| Call the jockey, call the pander,° | pimp | |
| 20 | Bid them come and take their fill. | |
| When the bonny blade° carouses, | attractive young man | |
| Pockets full, and spirits high — | ||
| What are acres? what are houses? | ||
| Only dirt, or wet or dry. | ||
| 25 | Should the guardian friend or mother | |
| Tell the woes of willful waste; | ||
| Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother° — | nonsense | |
| You can hang or drown at last. |