Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 3

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 s.h.i.+pton, 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 pa.s.sed 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 sc.r.a.pte 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, _c.o.c.k 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, _c.o.c.ki 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, ent.i.tled _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 p.u.s.s.y 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.)