Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes. Eckenstein Lina

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(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 pussy 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 song23 which is found also in the nursery collection of 1810 under the designation The Lady's Song in Leap Year.

      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.)

      Halliwell cites this song in a form in which the words are put into the lips of the king, and associates it with the amusements of Twelfth Night: —

      Lavender blue, fiddle faddle, lavender green.

      When I am king, fiddle faddle, you shall be queen, etc.

(1849, p. 237.)

      The expression diddle diddle according to Murray's Dictionary means to make music without the utterance of words, while fiddle faddle is said to indicate nonsense, and to fiddle is to fuss. But both words seem to go back to the association of dancing, as is suggested by the songs on Twelfth Night, or by the following nursery rhyme which refers to the same celebration.

      A cat came fiddling out of the barn,

      With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,

      She could sing nothing but fiddle cum fee,

      The mouse has married the humble bee;

      Pipe, cat, dance, mouse;

      We'll have a wedding in our good house.

(1842, p. 102.)

      The following variation of this verse occurs in the Nursery Songs published by Rusher: —

      A cat came fiddling out of a barn,

      With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,

      She sang nothing but fiddle-de-dee,

      Worried a mouse and a humble bee.

      Puss began purring, mouse ran away,

      And off the bee flew with a wild huzza!

      In both cases the cat was fiddling, that is moving to instrumental music without the utterance of words, and called upon the others to do so while she played the pipes. Her association with an actual fiddle, however, is preserved in the following rhyme which I cite in two of its numerous variations: —

      Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,

      The cow jump'd over the moon!

      The little dog laughed to see such sport,

      And the dish lick't up the spoon.

(1797, cited by Rimbault.)

      Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,

      The cow jumped over the moon;

      The little dog laughed to see such craft,

      And the dish ran away with the spoon.

(c. 1783, p. 27.)

      This rhyme also refers to the revelry which accompanied a feast, probably the one of Twelfth Night also.

      CHAPTER IV

      RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS

      MANY of our longer nursery pieces first appeared in print in the diminutive toy-books already described, which represent so curious a development in the literature of the eighteenth century. These books were sometimes hawked about in one or more sheets, which were afterwards folded so as to form a booklet of sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four pages. Others were issued sewn and bound in brilliant covers, at a cost of as much as a shilling or eighteen pence. Usually each page contained one verse which was illustrated by an appropriate cut. In the toy-books which tell a consecutive story, the number of verses of the several pieces seem to have been curtailed or enlarged in order to fit the required size of the book.

      It is in these toy-books that we first come across famous nursery pieces such as the Alphabet which begins: —

      A was an Archer, who shot at a frog,

      B was a blind man, and led by a dog … etc.

      This first appeared in A Little Book for Little Children by T. W., sold at the Ring in Little Britain. It contains a portrait of Queen Anne, and probably goes back to the early part of the eighteenth century.

       The Topbook of all, already mentioned, which is of about 1760, contains the oldest version that I have come across of the words used in playing The Gaping, Wide-mouthed, Waddling Frog, each verse of which is illustrated by a rough cut. Again, The Tragic Death of A, Apple Pie, which, as mentioned above, was cited as far back as 1671, forms the contents of a toy-book issued by J. Evans about the year 1791 at the price of a farthing. The Death and Burial of Cock Robin fills a toy-book which was published by J. Marshall, London, and again by Rusher at Banbury; both editions are undated. Again The Courtship, Marriage, and Picnic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren form the contents of a toy-book dated 1810 and published by Harris, and The Life and Death of Jenny Wren appeared in a toy-book dated 1813, issued by J. Evans.

      Another famous toy-book contained The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog. This story was first issued in toy-book form by J. Harris, "successor to E. Newbery at the corner of St. Paul's Churchyard," probably at the beginning of 1806, at the cost of eighteen pence. A copy of the second edition, which mentions the date 1 May, 1806, is at the British Museum. It contains the words "to T. B. Esquire, M.P. county of XX, at whose suggestion and at whose house these notable sketches were first designed, this volume is with all suitable deference dedicated by his humble servant S. C. M." The coffin which is represented СКАЧАТЬ