Near famous Covent Garden,
A dome there stands on high,
Where kings are represented,
And queens in metered eye,
The both and men of business,
Diversions hither bring,
To hear the wanton doxies print,
And see them dance and sing,
With a fa -la -la -la, la -la -la -la -la,
With a fa -la -la -la -la -la.
Here Phyllis is the darling,
as she herself gives out
As tight a lass as ever,
did use a double clout
She's brisk and gay and cunning,
and wants a wedlock yoke
Her mother was before her,
as good as ever stroked
With a fa -la -la -la, la -la -la -la -la,
with a fa -la -la -la -la.
Young suitors she had many,
from squire up to lord,
And daily she refused them,
for virtue was the word.
A saint she would be thought,
and assembled all she could,
But jolly rakes all knew she was of
playhouse flesh and blood,
And her fa la la la, la la la la la,
and her fa la la la la.
Her mother, when encouraged
with warm Geneva dose,
Still cried,
Take care, dear filly,
To keep thy hunches close.
This made her stand out stoutly,
Opposing all that come,
And twenty demy cannons
still were mounted at her bum,
And her fa -la -la -la, la -la -la -la -la,
And her fa -la -la -la -la -la.
The knight and country squire
were shot with her disdain
The lawyer was outwitted,
the hardy soldier slain
The bluff tarpaulin sailor,
in vain, cried hard a port
She baffled all the shirks at sea
as the country town and court
With her fa -la -la -la, la -la -la -la,
and her fa -la -la -la -la
The god of love grown angry
that Phyllis seemed so shy
Resolved her pride to humble
and rout her pish and fie
He sent a slow -foot tailor
who knew well how to stitch
And in a little time had found
a button for her bridge
And her fa -la -la -la, la -la -la -la -la
And her fa -la -la -la -la -la
Yet was it not so close,
but is known without all doubt,
A little human figure has
secretly dropped out,
And though some petty scandal
pursue this venial fact,
Her mother swears and does
avow her honor is intact,
And her fa -la -la -la, la -la -la -la -la,
And her fa -la -la -la -la. you