Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 42

First come, first serve-then come not late; And when arrived, keep your state; For he who from these rules shall swerve, Must pay the _forfeits_-so observe.

Who enters here with boots and spurs, Must keep his nook, for if he stirs, And give with armed heel a kick, A pint he pays for ev'ry p.r.i.c.k.

Who rudely takes another's turn, A forfeit mug may manners learn.

Who reverentless shall swear or curse, Must lug seven farthings from his purse.

Who checks the barber in his tale, Must pay for each a pot of ale.

Who will or cannot miss his hat While tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, pays a pint for that.

And he who can or will not pay, Shall hence be sent half-trimm'd away, For will he nill he, if in fault He forfeit must in meal or malt.

But mark, who is alreads in drink, The cannikin must never clink!

It is not improbable that these lines had been partly modernized from an older original before they reached Dr. Kenrick, but Steevens was certainly too precipitate in p.r.o.nouncing them to be forgeries. Their authenticity is placed beyond a doubt by the testimony of my late friend, Major Moor, who, in his Suffolk Words, p. 133, informs us that he had seen a version of these rules at the tonsor's, of Alderton, near the sea.

c.o.c.kLE-BREAD.

My granny is sick, and now is dead,[56]

And we'll go mould some c.o.c.kle-bread; Up with my heels and down with my head, And this is the way to mould c.o.c.kle-bread.

[Footnote 56: Another version says, "and I wish she was dead, that I may go mould," &c., which, if correct, may be supposed to mean, "My granny is ill, and I wish she was dead, that I may use a charm for obtaining a husband."]

A very old practice of young women, moving as if they were kneading dough, and repeating the above lines, which are sometimes varied thus:

c.o.c.keldy bread, mistley cake, When you do that for our sake.

The entire explanation of this, which is not worth giving here, may be seen in Thoms's Anecdotes and Traditions, p. 95. An allusion to c.o.c.kle-bread occurs as early as 1595, in Peele's singular play of the Old Wives Tale.

A DRINKING CUSTOM.

A pie sat on a pear tree, A pie sat on a pear tree, A pie sat on a pear tree, Heigh ho! heigh ho! heigh ho!

These lines are sung by a person at the table after dinner. His next neighbour then sings "Once so merrily hopped she," during which the first singer is obliged to drink a b.u.mper; and should he be unable to empty his gla.s.s before the last line is sung, he must begin again till he succeeds. The next line is "Twice so merrily hopped she," sung by the next person under a similar arrangement, and so on; beginning again after "Thrice so merrily hopped she, heigh ho! heigh ho! heigh ho!" till the ceremony has been repeated around the table. It is to be hoped so absurd a practice is not now in fas.h.i.+on.

When a boy finds anything, and another sees him stoop for it, if the latter cries _halves_ before he has picked it up, he is, by schoolboy law, ent.i.tled to half of it. This right may, however, be negatived, if the finder cries out first-

Ricket, racket, find it, tack it, And niver give it to the aunder.

Or, sometimes the following:

No halfers, Findee, keepee; Lossee, seekee.

Boys leaving the schoolroom are accustomed to shout-

Those that go my way, b.u.t.ter and eggs, Those that go your way, chop off their legs.

A sort of persuasive inducement, I suppose, for them to follow the speaker for the sake of forming a party for a game.

XI.-NURSERY-SONGS.

The earliest and simplest form in which the nursery song appears is the lullaby, which may be defined a gentle song used for the purpose of inducing sleep. The term was generally, though not exclusively, confined to nurses:

Philomel, with melody Sing in our sweet lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby; Lulla, lulla, lullaby.

The etymology is to be sought for in the verb _lull_, to sing gently, which Douce thinks is connected with ?a?e? or ?????.

One of the earliest nursery lullabies that have descended to our day occurs in the play of Philotimus, 1583:

Trylle the ball againe my Jacke, And be contente to make some play, And I will lull thee on my lappe, With hey be bird now say not nay.

Another is introduced into the comedy of Patient Grissel, printed in the year 1603:

Hush, hush, hush, hus.h.!.+

And I dance mine own child, And I dance mine own child, Hush, hush, hush, hus.h.!.+

BILLY, MY SON.

The following lines are very common in the English nursery, and resemble the popular German ditty of Grandmother Addercook, inserted in the Knaben Wunderhorn, and translated by Dr. Jamieson in the Ill.u.s.trations of Northern Antiquities. The ballad of the Crowden Doo, Chambers, p.

205, bears, however, a far greater similarity to the German song.

Compare, also, the ballad of Willie Doo, in Buchan's Ancient Songs, ii.

179.

Where have you been to-day, Billy, my son?

Where have you been to-day, my only man?

I've been a wooing, mother, make my bed soon, For I'm sick at heart, and fain would lay down.

What have you ate to-day, Billy, my son?

What have you ate to-day, my only man?

I've ate eel-pie, mother, make my bed soon, For I'm sick at heart, and shall die before noon.

It is said there is some kind of a fairy legend connected with these lines, Billy having probably been visited by his mermaid mother. Nothing at all satisfactory has, however, yet been produced. It appears to bear a slight a.n.a.logy to the old ballad, "Where have you been all the day, my boy Willie," printed from a version obtained from Suffolk, in the Nursery Rhymes of England, p. 146;[57] and on this account we may here insert a copy of the pretty Scottish ballad, Tammy's Courts.h.i.+p:

Oh, where ha' ye been a' day, My boy Tammy?

Where ha' ye been a' day, My boy Tammy?

I've been by burn and flow'ry brae, Meadow green and mountain gray, Courting o' this young thing, Just come frae her mammy.

And where gat ye that young thing, My boy Tammy?

And where gat ye that young thing, My boy Tammy?

I gat her down in yonder how, Smiling on a broomy knowe, Herding ae wee lamb and ewe For her poor mammy.

What said you to the bonny bairn, My boy Tammy?