Penny-worth of wit. Here's a choice penny worth of wit, for all who stand in need of it

“Penny-Worth of Wit” is the only song in the Thomas collection in which the cheating lover changes his mind. The unfaithful husband is given £10 by his mistress and a penny by his wife to “venture” (that is, invest) on his trip abroad. He prospers and is ready to return when he is advised by an old man to test his women for their loyalty. The husband gives the old man the penny and returns home to try his advice. The wife proves faithful and he casts off the “harlot.”

J. Woodrow Hassell identifies two folk motifs in the story: “man buys a penny worth of wit” and “test of loyalty of one’s associates.” The earliest version of the narrative can be found in the fourteenth century (Hassell 290-92; S. Thompson J-163.1, H-1558). As published in 1723, the opening ran:

An Excellent Song, entituled a Pennyworth of Wit.
To the Tune of, Labandulishot
In ancient years, as books express,
Of old done deeds both more and less,
A merchant young, of tender years,
(As by the sequel well appears)
A worthy woman took to wife,
Right well brought up, and void of strife,
Could he with her have been content,
Great blessing might the Lord have sent;
But he a harlot loved more,
Wherewith his friends were vexed sore. (Collection of Old Ballads 2:215-19)

By the mid-eighteenth century the text was completely rewritten, apparently by a “Mr. William Lane,” as the third verse suggests. From the 1750s the new version was printed often on broadsides and in song collections in England and America (Roud; Ford, “Broadsides” #3161-66; Welsh and Tillinghast #1006-10; Simpson 418-20; Dicey).