_THE PLEASURES OF MOTION._
He asked a shepherd who stood near:
"Why do these lads make merry here,
Why is their round so gay?"
"They dance about a violet sweet, a lad hath found to-day."
The drum, the harp, and fife, resounded round their play,
All were of heart elate,
Each dancing with his mate.
I, Nithart, led the row,
Once and again, around the violet to and fro.
_Minnesinger, 13th century._
No. 62.
_Ring Around the Rosie._
This little round, universally familiar in America, meets us again
in Germany and Provence. After the transit of various languages, and
thousands of miles, the song retains the same essential characteristics.
[Illustration]
Ring a ring a rosie,
A bottle full of posie,
All the girls in our town,
Ring for little Josie.
_New Bedford, Mass._ (about 1790).
Another version:
Round the ring of roses,
Pots full of posies,
The one who stoops last
Shall tell whom she loves best.
At the end of the words the children suddenly stoop, and the last to
get down undergoes some penalty, or has to take the place of the child
in the centre, who represents the "rosie" (rose-tree; French, _rosier_).
Vulgarized forms of the round are common:
Ring around the rosie,
Squat among the posies.
Ring around the roses,
Pocket full of posies,
One, two, three--squat!
And finally it is deformed past recognition:
A ring, a ring, a ransy,
Buttermilk and tansy,
Flower here and flower there,
And all--squat!
This last corruption was in use some forty years since in Connecticut.
No. 63.
_Go Round and Round the Valley._
A ring of dancers with clasped hands. A girl circles about the outside
of the rest, who join in singing--
[Illustration]
Go round and round the valley,
As we are all so gay.
The players now let go hands, and she winds in and out of the circle,
singing--
Go in and out of the windows,
As we are all so gay.