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.
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.
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!
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.
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 ho! says Rowley.
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.
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.
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