RHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS
On looking more closely at the contents of our nursery collections, we
find that a large proportion of so-called nursery rhymes are songs or
snatches of songs, which are preserved also as broadsides, or appeared
in printed form in early song-books. These songs or parts of songs were
included in nursery collections because they happened to be current at
the time when these collections were made, and later compilers
transferred into their own collections what they found in earlier ones.
Many songs are preserved in a number of variations, for popular songs
are in a continual state of transformation. Sometimes new words are
written to the old tune, and differ from those that have gone before in
all but the rhyming words at the end of the lines; sometimes new words
are introduced which entirely change the old meaning. Many variations
of songs are born of the moment, and would pass away with it, were it
not that they happen to be put into writing and thereby escape falling
into oblivion.
In _Mother Goose's Melody_ stands a song in six verses which begins:--
There was a little man who woo'd a little maid,
And he said: "Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed?
I have little more to say, will you? Aye or nay?
For little said is soonest mended, ded, ded." (1799, p. 46.)
Halliwell's collection includes only the first and the fourth verse of
this piece. (1842, p. 24.)
In the estimation of Chappell this song was a very popular ballad, which
was sung to the tune of _I am the Duke of Norfolk_, or _Paul's
Steeple_.[14] It appears also in the _Fairing or Golden Toy for Children
of all Sizes and Denominations_ of 1781, where it is designated as "a
new love song by the poets of Great Britain." Its words form a variation
of the song called _The Dumb Maid_, which is extant in a broadside of
about 1678,[15] and which is also included in the early collection of
_Pills to Purge Melancholy_ of 1698-1719. The likeness between the
pieces depends on their peculiar repeat:--
There was a bonny blade had married a country maid,
And safely conducted her home, home, home;
She was neat in every part, and she pleased him to the heart,
But alas, and alas, she was dumb, dumb, dumb.
[14] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 770.
[15] _Roxburgh Collection of Ballads_, IV, p. 355.
The same form of verse was used in another nursery song which stands as
follows:--
There was a little man, and he had a little gun,
And the ball was made of lead, lead, lead.
And he went to a brook to shoot at a duck,
And he hit her upon the head, head, head.
Then he went home unto his wife Joan,
To bid her a good fire to make, make, make,
To roast the duck that swam in the brook,
And he would go fetch her the drake, drake, drake.
(1744, p. 43; with repeat, 1810, p. 45.)
Again, a song which appears in several early nursery collections is as
follows:--
There was an old woman toss'd in a blanket,
Seventeen times as high as the moon;
But where she was going no mortal could tell,
For under her arm she carried a broom.
"Old woman, old woman, old woman," said I,
"Whither, ah whither, ah whither, so high?"
To sweep the cobwebs from the sky,
And I'll be with you by and by. (_c._ 1783, p. 22.)
This song was a favourite with Goldsmith, who sang it to his friends at
dinner on the day when his play _The Good-natured Man_ was produced.[16]
It was one of the numerous songs that were sung to the tune of
Lilliburlero, which goes back at least to the time of Purcell.[17] A
Scottish version of this piece was printed by Chambers, which presents
some interesting variations:--
There was a wee wifie row't up in a blanket,
Nineteen times as hie as the moon;
And what did she there I canna declare,
For in her oxter she bure the sun.
"Wee wifie, wee wifie, wee wifie," quo' I,
"O what are ye doin' up there sae hie?"
"I'm blowin' the cauld cluds out o' the sky."
"Weel dune, weel dune, wee wifie!" quo' I. (1870, p. 34.)
[16] Forster, _Life of Goldsmith_, II, 122.
[17] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 569.
I have come across a verse sung on Earl Grey and Lord Brougham, written
in 1835, which may have been in imitation of this song:--
Mother Bunch shall we visit the moon?
Come, mount on your broom, I'll stick on a spoon,
Then hey to go, we shall be there soon ... etc.
Mother Bunch is a familiar character of British folk-lore, who figures
in old chapbooks as a keeper of old-world saws, and gives advice in
matters matrimonial. One of the earliest accounts of her is _Pasquill's
Jests with the Merriments of Mother Bunch_, extant in several editions,
which was reprinted by Hazlitt in _Old English Jestbooks_, 1864, Vol.
III. There are also _Mother Bunch's Closet newly broke open_, _Mother
Bunch's Golden Fortune Teller_, and _Mother Bunch's Fairy Tales_,
published by Harris in 1802. The name also occurs in _Mother Osborne's
Letter to the Protestant Dissenters rendered into English Metre by
Mother Bunch_, 1733. Mother Bunch, like Mother Goose and Mother Shipton,
may be a traditional name, for Mother Bunch has survived in connections
which suggest both the wise woman and the witch.
Another old song which figures in early nursery collections is as
follows:--
What care I how black I be?
Twenty pounds will marry me;
If twenty won't, forty shall--
I am my mother's bouncing girl. (_c._ 1783, p. 57.)
Chappell mentions a song called, _What care I how fair she be_, which
goes back to before 1620.[18] The words of these songs seem to have
suggested a parody addressed to Zachary Macaulay, the father of the
historian, who pleaded the cause of the slaves. The Bill for the
abolition of slavery was passed in 1833, and the following quatrain was
sung with reference to it:--
What though now opposed I be?
Twenty peers will carry me.
If twenty won't, thirty will,
For I'm His Majesty's bouncing Bill. (_N. & Q._, 8, XII, 48.)
[18] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 315.
Another so-called nursery rhyme which is no more than a popular song has
been traced some way back in history by Halliwell, who gives it in two
variations:--
Three blind mice, see how they run!
They all run after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such fools in your life--
Three blind mice! (1846, p. 5.)
In _Deuteromalia_ of 1609 this stands as follows:--
Three blind mice, three blind mice!
Dame Julian, the miller and his merry old wife
She scrapte the tripe, take thow the knife.
Among the popular songs which have found their way into nursery
collections is the one known as _A Frog he would a wooing go_, the
subject of which is old. Already in 1549 the shepherds of Scotland sang
a song called, _The Frog cam to the Myldur_. In the year 1580 there was
licensed, _A most strange Wedding of the Frog and the Mouse_, as appears
from the books of the Stationers' Company cited by Warton.[19] The song
has been preserved in many variations with a variety of burdens. These
burdens sound like nonsense, but in some cases the same words appear
elsewhere in a different application, which shows that they were not
originally unmeaning.
[19] Warton, _History of English Poetry_, 1840, III, 360.
The oldest known version of the song begins:--
It was a frog in the well, _humble dum, humble dum_,
And the mouse in the mill, _tweedle tweedle twino_.[20]
[20] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 88.
The expression _humble dum_ occurs in other songs and seems to indicate
triumph; the word _tweedle_ represents the sound made by the pipes.
A Scottish variation of the song begins:--
There lived a Puddy in a well, _Cuddy alone, Cuddy alone_,
There lived a Puddy in a well, _Cuddy alone and I_.[21]
[21] Sharpe, Ch. K., _Ballad Book_, 1824, p. 87.
In the nursery collection of _c._ 1783 the song begins:--
There was a frog liv'd in a well, _Kitty alone, Kitty alone_,
There was a frog liv'd in a well.
There was a frog liv'd in a well, _Kitty alone and I_.
And a farce mouse in a mill,
_Cock me cary, Kitty alone, Kitty alone and I_. (_c._ 1783, p. 4.)
The origin and meaning of this burden remains obscure.
The antiquity and the wide popularity of these verses are further shown
by a song written in imitation of it, called _A Ditty on a High Amore at
St. James_, and set to a popular tune, which dates from before 1714. It
is in verse, and begins:--
Great Lord Frog and Lady Mouse, _Crackledom hee, crackledom ho_,
Dwelling near St. James' house, _Cocki mi chari chi_;
Rode to make his court one day,
In the merry month of May,
When the sun shone bright and gay, _twiddle come, tweedle dee_.[22]
[22] Chappell, loc. cit., p. 561.
In the accepted nursery version the song begins:--
A frog he would a wooing ride, _heigho, says Rowley_,
Whether his mother would let him or no,
_With a roly-poly, gammon and spinach,
Heigho, says Anthony Rowley_.
This burden is said by a correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ to have
been first inserted in the old song as a burden by Liston. His song,
entitled _The Love-sick Frog_, with an original tune by C. E. H., Esq.
(perhaps Charles Edward Horn), and an accompaniment by Thomas Cook, was
published by Goulding & Co., Soho Square, in the early part of the
nineteenth century (_N. & Q._, I, 458). The burden has been traced back
to the _jeu d'esprit_ of 1809 on the installation of Lord Grenville as
Chancellor of Oxford, which another correspondent quotes from memory:--
Mister Chinnery then an M. A. of great parts,
Sang the praises of Chancellor Grenville.
Oh! He pleased all the ladies and tickled their hearts,
But then we all know he's a Master of Arts.
_With a rowly, powly, gammon and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Rowley._ (_N. & Q._, 11, 27.)
Another variation of the song of _The Frog and the Mouse_ of about 1800
begins:--
There was a frog lived in a well, _heigho, crowdie_!
And a merry mouse in a mill, _with a howdie, crowdie_, etc.
(_N. & Q._, 11, 110.)
This expression, _heigho, crowdie_, contains a call to the crowd to
strike up. The crowd is the oldest kind of British fiddle, which had no
neck and only three strings. It is mentioned as a British instrument
already by the low Latin poet Fortunatus towards the close of the sixth
century: "Chrotta Britannia canat." The instrument is well known to this
day in Wales as the _crwth_.
The word crowdy occurs also as a verb in one of the numerous nursery
rhymes referring to scenes of revelry, at which folk-humour pictured the
cat making music:--
Come dance a jig to my granny's pig,
With a rowdy, rowdy, dowdy;
Come dance a jig to my granny's pig,
And pussy cat shall crowdy. (1846, p. 141.)
This verse and a number of others go back to the festivities that were
connected with Twelfth Night. Some of them preserve expressions in the
form of burdens which have no apparent sense; in other rhymes the same
expressions have the force of a definite meaning. Probably the verses in
which the words retain a meaning have the greater claim to antiquity.
Thus among the black-letter ballads is a song[23] which is found also in
the nursery collection of 1810 under the designation _The Lady's Song in
Leap Year_.
[23] _Roxburgh Collection_, IV, 433.
Roses are red, _diddle diddle_, lavender's blue,
If you will have me, _diddle diddle_, I will have you.
Lillies are white, _diddle diddle_, rosemary's green,
When you are king, _diddle, diddle_, I will be queen.
Call up your men, _diddle, diddle_, set them to work,
Some to the plough, _diddle, diddle_, some to the cart.
Some to make hay, _diddle, diddle_, some to cut corn,
While you and I, _diddle, diddle_, keep the bed warm.
(1810, p. 46.)
Halliwell cites this song in a form in which the words are put into the
lips of the king, and associates it with the amusements of Twelfth
Night:--
Lavender blue, _fiddle faddle_, lavender green.
When I am king, _fiddle faddle_, you shall be queen, etc.
(1849, p. 237.)
The expression _diddle diddle_ according to Murray's Dictionary means to
make music without the utterance of words, while _fiddle faddle_ is said
to indicate nonsense, and to fiddle is to fuss. But both words seem to
go back to the association of dancing, as is suggested by the songs on
Twelfth Night, or by the following nursery rhyme which refers to the
same celebration.
A cat came fiddling out of the barn,
With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,
She could sing nothing but fiddle cum fee,
The mouse has married the humble bee;
Pipe, cat, dance, mouse;
We'll have a wedding in our good house. (1842, p. 102.)
The following variation of this verse occurs in the _Nursery Songs_
published by Rusher:--
A cat came fiddling out of a barn,
With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,
She sang nothing but fiddle-de-dee,
Worried a mouse and a humble bee.
Puss began purring, mouse ran away,
And off the bee flew with a wild huzza!
In both cases the cat was fiddling, that is moving to instrumental music
without the utterance of words, and called upon the others to do so
while she played the pipes. Her association with an actual fiddle,
however, is preserved in the following rhyme which I cite in two of its
numerous variations:--
Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jump'd over the moon!
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish lick't up the spoon. (1797, cited by Rimbault.)
Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed to see such craft,
And the dish ran away with the spoon. (_c._ 1783, p. 27.)
This rhyme also refers to the revelry which accompanied a feast,
probably the one of Twelfth Night also.