Little Foxey steps forward and follows the squire’s son, and the clown sings:
Now the next that I call on
Is the King of Sicily;
My daughter he shall have,
And married they shall be.
The King of Sicily steps forward and follows Little Foxey, and the clown sings:
Now the next that I call on,
He is a pitman bold;
He works all underground,
To keep him from the cold.
The pitman follows the rest, and the clown sings again:
It’s now you ’ve seen them all,
Think o’ them what ye will,
Though we’ll stand back awhile
Till they do try their skill.
Now fiddler then, take up thy fiddle,
Play the lads their hearts’ desire,
Or else we ’ll break thy fiddle,
And fling thee a’ back o’ the fire.
The five men then commence dancing round, with their swords all raised to the centre of the ring, till the first clown orders them to tie the points of their swords in “the knot.” When this is done, and the five swords are knotted, the knot is held upright by one of the dancers, whom they call Alexander, or Alick. Alick then takes the sword from the knot, and, retaining it, gives the second dancer his sword; then the second dancer gives the third dancer his sword, the third dancer gives it to the fourth, and the fourth to the fifth.
The first clown, called the Tommy, is dressed in a chintz dress with a belt, a fox’s head for a cap, and the skin hanging below his shoulders.
The second clown, called the Bessy, wears a woman’s gown, which of late years has been well crinolined, and a beaver hat.
