A History of Nursery Rhymes Part 12

"If thou wishest for music I will instantly call together the shepherds.

None are before them, No mortal sings more holy songs.

Thousands of praises we sing to thee, A thousand thousand thousands."

If aught be distinct in this early Christian lullaby, it is that old-time ideas of "stars on high," "the sky is full of sleep," and other similar figures of mythical word-pictures are wanting. A mother's sympathy and affection alone bind together the words of her song in illimitable praises--a thousand thousand thousands.

Milton says--

"But see the Virgin blest Hath laid her babe to rest."

What a bright sanctified glory the child King brought to his baby throne.

"Thee in all children, the eternal child. Thee to whom the wise men gave adoration, and the shepherds praise."

What countless hosts of child-bands are ever singing some dreamy lullaby of praise to their child King.

In the pastoral district of Vallauria, in the heart of the Ligurian Alps, within a day's journey from the orange groves of Mentone, a yearly festival takes place, when the children of the mountains sing a stanza recalling the Virgin's song--

"If thou wishest for music I will instantly call together the shepherds. None are before them."

"Lo! the shepherd band draws nigh, Horns they play, Thee, their King, to glorify, Rest thee, my soul's delight."

No lyrics of the nursery have come down to us fas.h.i.+oned after the first-century song of the Virgin. The older types have survived, and in such an unvarying mould have they been cast that there is in each European country's song the same old pagan imagery obstinately repeating itself in spite of Christianity, so that the songs of the Christian Church became exclusively the hymns of her faithful people, the carols of her festivals, and in the Middle Ages the libretto of her Church mystery plays, setting forth her history and doctrines to the lower orders. If one were to remove the obstacles of idiom and grammar in the poetry of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, or even Russia, and expose the subject of the theme, a mere skeleton of past delusions would remain.

Long before modern European nations received this imagery of past credulities the poets of Greece and Rome had versified the same old-time beliefs. Before Rome was founded the Etruscan race, who flourished in what is now modern Tuscany, had the Books of the Tages fas.h.i.+oned in rhythmical mould, from which their traditions, ordinances, and religious teachings were drawn. They believed in genii as fervently as a Persian.

Here is one Etruscan legend of the nursery, recalling

"How the wondrous boy-Tages sprang out of the soil just previously turned over by the plough in the fields of Tarquinii, and communicated to Lucamones the doctrines of divination, by sacrifice, by flight of birds, and by observation of the lightning, a son of genius and grandson of Jupiter."--_Cic. de Divin._ ii. 23.

It was the ancient tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk."

CHAPTER VII.

JACK RHYMES.

In the preceding chapter it was noted how the wondrous boy-Tages was believed in by the ancients. "Jack and the Beanstalk," our modern tale, though adapted to the present age, is the same legend, and known and told in their own way by the Zulus in South Africa and by the Redskin of North America, as well as to other isolated peoples. In these tales of primitive peoples the same wonderful miracle of the soil's fertility takes place, in the one case by the birth of the boy-Tages, in the other by the marvellous growth of the twisting beanstalks which in one night reach up--up--up to the land of the G.o.ds and giants. "Jack the Giant Killer," a similar legend but from a Celtic source, was known in France in the twelfth century, and at that period translated into Latin by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Both "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Jack the Giant Killer" are found in the folk-lore tales of Scandinavia.

ANOTHER JACK OF THE NURSERY CLa.s.sICS

sprang up into being after the wars of Parliament, when the pleasure-hating Puritan gained an ascendency in the land, and when the pastimes of all cla.s.ses, but more especially those of the lower orders who had been so happy and contented under the Tudor sovereigns, suffered a miserable suspension. They who were in authority longed to change the robe of revel for the shroud. Not only were theatres and public gardens closed, but a war of bigotry was waged against May-poles, wakes, fairs, church music, fiddles, dancing, puppet shows, Whitsun ales--in short, everything wearing the attire of popular amus.e.m.e.nt and diversion. The rhyme recording Jack Horner's gloomy conduct was, in fact, a satire on Puritanical aversion to Christmas festivities.

"Jack Horner was a pretty lad, near London he did dwell, His father's heart he made full glad, his mother loved him well.

A pretty boy of curious wit, all people spoke his praise, And in a corner he would sit on Christmas Holy-days.

When friends they did together meet to pa.s.s away the time, Why, little Jack, he sure would eat his Christmas pie in rhyme, And say, 'Jack Horner, in the corner, eats good Christmas pie, And with his thumb pulls out a plum, Saying, What a good boy am I.'"

The copy of the history of Jack Horner, containing his witty pranks and the tricks he played upon people from his youth to old age, is preserved in the Bodleian Library.

There are a number of men and women who recall a time when the rhymes of "Jack Horner" and "Jack the Giant Killer" appeared finer than anything in Shakespeare; but this much may be said for "Jack Horner," the cavalier's song of derision at the straight-laced Puritan, that it soon lost its political signification, gradually becoming used as a mark of respect.

"Thus few were like him far and nigh, When he to age was come, As being only fourteen inches high, A giant to Tom Thumb."

CHAPTER VIII.

RIDDLE-MAKING.

Riddle-making is not left alone by the purveyors of nursery yarns, though belonging to the mythologic state of thought. The Hindu calls the sun seven-horsed; so the German riddle asks--

"What is the chariot drawn by?"

"Seven white and seven black horses."

The Greek riddle of the two sisters--Day and Night. Another one given by _Diog. Laert._ i. 91, _Athenagoras_ x. 451, runs--

"One is father, twelve the children, and born to each other Maidens thirty, whose twain form is parted asunder, White to behold on the one side, black to behold on the other, All immortal in being, all doomed to dwindle and perish."[H]

"The year, months, and days."

An interesting English rhyme says--

"Old mother needle had but one eye, A very long tail which she let fly, Every time she went through a gap She left a bit of her tail in the trap."

"Needle and sewing cotton."

"Purple, yellow, red, and green, The king cannot reach, nor yet the queen, Nor can Old Noll, whose power's so great, Tell me this riddle while I count eight."

"A rainbow."

This nursery rhyme's date is fixed by the reference to Old Noll, the Lord Protector.

"As round as an apple, as deep as a cup, And all the king's horses can't pull it up."

"A well."