Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes. Eckenstein Lina

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ rel="nofollow" href="#n17" type="note">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.)

      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 Shipton, 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 passed 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.)

      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 scrapte 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.

      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

      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

      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,

      Cock 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, Cocki 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

      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, entitled 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 СКАЧАТЬ