Rakes of Mallow

Does anyone know the meaning of the lyrics to Rakes of Mallow?

here they are:

THE RAKES OF MALLOW

Beauing, belleing, dancing, drinking,
Breaking windows, cursing, sinking
Every raking, never thinking,
Live the Rakes of Mallow;
Spending faster than it comes,
Beating waiter's bailiffs, duns,
Bacchus' true begotten sons,
Live the Rakes of Mallow.

One time naught but claret drinking,
Then like politicians, thinking
To raise the "sinking funds" when sinking.
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
When at home, with da-da dying,
Still for mellow water crying;
But, where there's good claret plying
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
Racking tenants stewards teasing,
Swiftly spending, slowly, raising,
Wishing to spend all their days in
Raking as at Mallow.
Then to end this raking life,
They get sober, take a wife,
Ever after live in strife,
And wish again for Mallow.

Thanks, Ky

This really isn't a lyrics translation, but okay, I'll give it a go.

I don't know what Mallow refers to, but Wikipedia says rakes are men "habituated to immoral conduct", which fits with the rest of the song.

I don't really want to look up all the other obscure words, so I'll just give a summary:
It's about a bunch of hardcore partyers who go around womanizing and drinking and spending money faster than they make it. Eventually, life catches up with them, and they settle down with a wife and family. But they're not real happy, and they still dream of their old life when they were just partying all day.

Hopefully that was what you were looking for... you may want to try songmeanings or even yahoo answers. This site is really for translations, not for analyzing meaning.