Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 2

The miller he stole corn, The weaver he stole yarn, The little tailor stole broadcloth To keep these three rogues warm.

The miller was drowned in his dam, The weaver was hung in his loom, The devil ran away with the little tailor With the broadcloth under his arm. (1842, p. 3.)

Chappell printed the words of the song of Old King Cole in several variations, and pointed out that _The Pleasant Historie of Thomas of Reading, or the Six Worthie Yeomen of the West_ of 1632, contains the legend of one Cole, a cloth-maker of Reading at the time of King Henry I, and that the name "became proverbial owing to the popularity of this book." "There was some joke or conventional meaning among Elizabethan dramatists," he says, "when they gave the name of Old Cole, which it is now difficult to recover." Dekker in the _Satiromatrix_ of 1602, and Marston in _The Malcontent_ of 1604, applied the name to a woman. On the other hand, Ben Jonson in _Bartholomew Fair_ gave the name of Old Cole to the sculler in the puppet-play _Hero and Leander_ which he there introduces.[10] In face of this information, what becomes of the ident.i.ty of the supposed king?

[10] Chappell, _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, 1893, p. 633.

On the other hand a long ancestry is now claimed for certain characters of nursery fame who seemed to have no special claim to attention. The following verse appears in most collections of rhymes, and judging from the ill.u.s.tration which accompanies it in the toy-books, it refers sometimes to a boy and a girl, sometimes to two boys.

Jack and Gill went up the hill To fetch a bottle of water; Jack fell down and broke his crown, And Gill came tumbling after. (_c._ 1783, p. 51.)

[Later collections have _Jill_ and _pail_.]

This verse, as was first suggested by Baring-Gould,[11] preserves the Scandinavian myth of the children Hjuki and Bill who were caught up by Mani, the Moon, as they were taking water from the well Byrgir, and they can be seen to this day in the moon carrying the bucket on the pole between them.

[11] Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, 1866, p. 189.

Another rhyme cited by Halliwell from _The New Mad Tom o'Bedlam_ mentions Jack as being the Man in the Moon:--

The Man in the Moon drinks claret, But he is a dull Jack-a-dandy; Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot, He should learn to drink cider or brandy. (1842, p. 33.)

According to North German belief, a man stands in the moon pouring water out of a pail (K., p. 304), which agrees with expressions such as "the moon holds water." In a Norse mnemonic verse which dates from before the twelfth century, we read, "the pail is called Saeg, the pole is called Simul, Bil and Hiuk carry them" (C. P., I, 78).

The view that Jack and Jill are mythological or heroic beings finds corroboration in the expression "for Jak nor for Gille," which occurs in the Townley Mysteries of about the year 1460.[12] By this declaration a superhuman power is called in as witness. The same names are coupled together also in an ancient divination rhyme used to decide in favour of one of two courses of action. Two sc.r.a.ps of paper slightly moistened were placed on the back of the hand, and the following invocation was p.r.o.nounced before and after breathing upon them to see which would fly first. The sport was taught by Goldsmith to Miss Hawkins when a child, as she related to Forster.[13]

[12] Cited _Murray's Dictionary_: Jack.

[13] Forster, J., _Life of Goldsmith_, II, p. 71.

There were two blackbirds sat upon a hill The one was named Jack, the other named Jill.

Fly away Jack! Fly away Jill!

Come again Jack! Come again Jill! (1810, p. 45.)

The lines suggest the augur's action with regard to the flight of birds.

The same verse has been recited to me in the following variation:--

Peter and Paul sat on the wall, Fly away Peter! Fly away Paul!

Come again Peter! Come again Paul!

In this case the names of Christian apostles have been subst.i.tuted for heathen names which, at the time when the _names_ were changed, may still have carried a suggestion of profanity. The following rhyme on Jack and Gill occurs in an early nursery collection:--

I won't be my father's Jack, I won't be my mother's Gill, I will be the fiddler's wife And have music when I will.

T'other little tune, t'other little tune, Pr'ythee, love, play me, t'other little tune. (_c._ 1783, p. 25.)

CHAPTER III

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 s.n.a.t.c.hes 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 pa.s.s 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.