English Folk Song - Drink Old England Dry

Now, come my brave boys, as I’ve told you before.

Come drink, my brave boys, and we’ll boldly call for more,

For the French have invited us and they say that they will try, will try,

They say that they will come and drink old England dry.

   Aye dry, aye dry me boys, aye dry,

   They say that they will come and drink old England dry.

   (last line of chorus repeats last line of each verse)

Supposin’ we should meet with the Germans by the way,

Ten thousand to one, we will show them British play.

With our swords and our cutlasses, we’ll fight until we die, we die,

Before that they shall come and drink old England dry.

Then up spake bold Churchill, of fame and renown,

He swears he’ll be true to his country and his crown.

For the cannon they will rattle and the bullets they will fly, will fly,

Before that they shall come and drink old England dry.

Then it’s come my brave boys as I’ve told you before,

Come drink my brave boys ’til you can not drink no more.

For those Germans they may boast and shout but their brags are all my eye, my eye.

They say that they will come and drink old England dry.

      Also known as He Swore He’d Drink Old England Dry. It dates from the early 1800s when Napoleon was threatening to invade England. The song was later adapted for the Crimean War (1853-1856). In 1936 a version of the song mentioned Lord Roberts and in the Second World War, Winston Churchill took his place. In most versions the French are the enemy, but in some later ones the enemies were the Russians.