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Read Ebook: Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England by Halliwell Phillipps J O James Orchard
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Ebook has 1433 lines and 95885 words, and 29 pages
They'll guard thee so safely from danger or care, They'll gaze on thy beautiful winglets so fair, And comfort, and love, and befriend thee!
In Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Arnim und Brentano, 1808, iii. 82, 83, 90, we have three German songs relating to the lady-bird. The first two of these are here given:
Guldvogel, flieg aus, Flieg auf die Stangen, K?sebrode langen; Mir eins, dir eins, Alle gute G'sellen eins.
"Gold-bird, get thee gone, fly to thy perch, bring cheese-cakes, one for me, one for thee, and one for all good people."
Maik?ferchen, Maik?ferchen, fliege weg! Dein H?usgen brennt, Dein M?tterchen flennt, Dein Vater sitzt auf der Schwelle, Flieg in Himmel aus der H?lle.
"May-bird, May-bird, fly away. Thy house burns, thy mother weeps, thy father stays at his threshold, fly from hell into heaven!"--The third is not so similar to our version. Another German one is given in Kuhn und Schwark, Norddeutsche Sagen, 1848, p. 375:
Maik?ferchen, fliege, Dein Vater ist im Kriege, Dein Mutter ist in Pommerland, Pommerland ist abgebrannt! Maik?ferchen, fliege.
"May-bird, fly. Thy father is in the war, thy mother is in Pomerania, Pomerania is burnt! May-bird, fly."--See, also, Erk und Irmer, Die Deutschen Volkslieder, Berlin, 1839, iv. 7, Das Maik?ferlied. For the two pretty Swedish songs which follow I am indebted to the MS. of Mr. Stephens. The first is common in the southern parts of that country, the other in the northern.
Guld-h?na, guld-ko! Flyg ?ster, flyg vester, Dit du flyger der bor din ?lskade!
"Gold-hen, gold-cow! fly east, fly west, you will fly where your sweetheart is."
Jungfru Marias Nyckelpiga! Flyg ?ster, flyg vester, Flyg dit der min k?resta bor!
"Fly, our holy Virgin's bower-maid! fly east, fly west, fly where my loved-one dwelleth." In Denmark they sing :
Fly, fly, our Lord's own hen! To-morrow the weather fair will be, And eke the next day too.
'Stick, beat Fick, I say! Piggie will not go home to-day!'"
There was a lady lov'd a hogge; Hony, quoth shee, Woo't thou lie with me to-night? Ugh, quoth hee.
A similar song is current in Sweden, as we learn from Arwidsson, Svenska Forns?nger, iii. 482, who gives a version in which an old woman, who had no children, took a little foal, which she called Longshanks, and rocked and nursed it as if it had been her own child:
Gumman ville vagga Och inga barn hade hon; D? tog hon in F?lungen sin, Och lade den i vaggan sin. Vyssa, vyssa, l?ngsk?nken min, L?nga ben bar du; Lefver du till sommaren, Blir du lik far din.
Another paradoxical song-tale, respecting the old woman who went to market, and had her petticoats cut off at her knees "by a pedlar whose name was Stout," is found in some shape or other in most countries in Europe. A Norwegian version is given by Asbj?rnsen og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, 1843, and, if I recollect rightly, it is also found in Grimm.
The riddle-rhyme of "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" is, in one form or other, a favorite throughout Europe. A curious Danish version is given by Thiele, iii. 148:
Lille Trille Laae paa Hylde; Lille Trille Faldt ned af Hylde. Ingen Mand I hele Land Lille Trille curere kan.
Which may be thus translated:
Little Trille Lay on a shelf: Little Trille Thence pitch'd himself: Not all the men In our land, I ken, Can put Little Trille right again.
And Mr. Stephens has preserved two copies in his MS. Swedish collections. The first is from the province of Upland:
Thille Lille Satt p? take'; Thille Lille Trilla' ner; Ingen l?kare i hela verlden Thille Lille laga kan.
Thille Lille On the roof-tree sat; Thille Lille Down fell flat; Never a leech the world can show That Thille Lille can heal, I trow.
Another from the province of Sm?land:
Lille Bulle Trilla' ner ? skulle; Ingen man i detta lan' Lille Bulle laga kan.
Down on the shed Lille Bulle rolled; Never a man in all this land Lille Bulle helpen can.
It will now only be necessary to refer to the similarities pointed out in other parts of this work, to convince the reader that, at all events, a very fair case is made out for the truth of the positions we have contended for, if, indeed, sufficient evidence of their absolute truth is not adduced. They who are accustomed to researches of this kind, are too well aware of the facility with which the most plausible theories are frequently nullified by subsequent discovery; but there appears in the present case to be numerous conditions insoluble by any other supposition than that of a common origin, and we are therefore fully justified in adopting it as proved.
Turning to the nursery rhymes of our own country, it will tend materially to strengthen the results to which we have arrived, if we succeed in proving their antiquity in this island. We shall be enabled to do so satisfactorily, and to show that they are not the modern nonsense some folks may pronounce them to be. They illustrate the history and manners of the people for centuries. Here, for instance, is a relic in the form of a nursery rhyme, but in reality part of a political song, referring to the rebellious times of Richard the Second.
An infant of the nineteenth century recalling our recollection to Jack Straw and his "blazey-boys!" Far better this than teaching history with notes "suited to the capacity of the youngest." Another refers to Joanna of Castile, who visited the court of Henry the Seventh in 1506:
I had a little nut-tree, nothing would it bear But a golden nutmeg and a silver pear; The King of Spain's daughter came to visit me, And all for the sake of my little nut-tree.
We have distinct evidence that the well-known rhyme,
The King of France went up the hill, With twenty thousand men: The King of France came down the hill, And ne'er went up again--
was composed before 1588, It occurs in an old tract called Pigges Corantoe, 1642, where it is entitled "Old Tarlton's Song," referring to Tarlton the jester, who died in 1588. The following one belongs to the seventeenth century:
As I was going by Charing Cross, I saw a black man upon a black horse; They told me it was King Charles the First; Oh dear, my heart was ready to burst!
See-saw, sack-a-day; Monmouth is a pretie boy, Richmond is another, Grafton is my onely joy, And why should I these three destroy To please a pious brother?
William and Mary, George and Anne, Four such children had never a man: They put their father to flight and shame, And call'd their brother a shocking bad name.
Another nursery song on King William is not yet obsolete, but its application is not generally known. My authority is the title of it in MS. Harl. 7316:
As I walk'd by myself, And talked to myself, Myself said unto me, Look to thyself, Take care of thyself, For nobody cares for thee.
I answer'd myself, And said to myself In the self-same repartee, Look to thyself, Or not look to thyself, The self-same thing will be.
To this class of rhymes I may add the following on Dr. Sacheverel, which was obtained from oral tradition:
Doctor Sacheverel Did very well, But Jacky Dawbin Gave him a warning.
In fir tar is, In oak none is, In mud eel is, In clay none is, Goat eat ivy, Mare eat oats.
Hic, hoc, the carrion crow, For I have shot something too low: I have quite missed my mark, And shot the poor sow to the heart; Wife, bring treacle in a spoon, Or else the poor sow's heart will down.
"Sing a song of sixpence" is quoted by Beaumont and Fletcher. "Buz, quoth the blue fly," which is printed in the nursery halfpenny books, belongs to Ben Jonson's Masque of Oberon; the old ditty of "Three Blind Mice" is found in the curious music book entitled Deuteromelia, or the Second Part of Musicke's Melodie, 1609; and the song, "When I was a little girl, I wash'd my mammy's dishes," is given by Aubrey in MS. Lansd. 231. "A swarm of bees in May," is quoted by Miege, 1687. And so on of others, fragments of old catches and popular songs being constantly traced in the apparently unmeaning rhymes of the nursery.
Most of us have heard in time past the school address to a story-teller:
Liar, liar, lick dish, Turn about the candlestick.
Not very important lines, one would imagine, but they explain a passage in Chettle's play of the Tragedy of Hoffman, or a Revenge for a Father, 4to. Lond, 1631, which would be partially inexplicable without such assistance:
I had a little bonny nagg, His name was Dapple Gray; And he would bring me to an ale-house A mile out of my way.
"Three children sliding on the ice" is founded on a metrical tale published at the end of a translation of Ovid de Arte Amandi, 1662. The lines,
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