Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes. Eckenstein Lina

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СКАЧАТЬ contents of our nursery collections, we find that a large proportion of so-called nursery rhymes are songs or snatches 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 pass 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.

      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.

      [Pg 26] "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:—

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