A wry rhyme about an old man, a stolen kiss and a cracked coin that wouldn't spend. The grumbling last line is half the fun.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There was an old man
In a velvet coat,
He kissed a maid
And gave her a groat.
The groat it was crack'd
And would not go,—
Ah, old man, do you serve me so?
About this rhyme
A groat was a real English silver coin (fourpence). · Text matches: cracked groat that 'would not go', closing rhetorical line 'do you serve me so?'
An old man in a fine velvet coat kisses a maid and pays her with a groat, a small silver coin, except it's cracked and worthless. The last line turns straight to the listener, half complaint, half joke: would you stand for being served like that? It's a rhyme built for a knowing look at the end.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition