Comparative Studies in Nursery RhymesEckenstein, Lina
History
Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes
Eckenstein, Lina
Comparative literature; Nursery rhymes -- Bibliography; Nursery rhymes -- History and criticism
Independently of these collections of nursery rhymes, many rhymes are
cited in general literature. This yields a further clue to their
currency at a given period. Thus Rimbault describes a book called
_Infant Institutes, part the first, or a Nurserical Essay on the Poetry
Lyric and Allegorical of the Earliest Ages_, 1797, perhaps by B. N.
Turner, the friend of Dr. Johnson, which was intended to ridicule the
Shakespeare commentators (_N. & Q._, 5, 3, 441). In the course of his
argument, the author cites a number of nursery rhymes.
Again, the poet Henry Carey, about the year 1720, ridiculed the odes
addressed to children by Ambrose Philips by likening these to a jumble
of nursery rhymes. In doing so he cited the rhymes, "Namby Pamby Jack a
Dandy," "London Bridge is broken down," "Liar Lickspit," "Jacky
Horner," "See-saw," and others, which nowadays are still included among
the ordinary stock of our rhymes.
Again, in the year 1671, John Eachard, the divine, illustrated his
argument by quoting the alphabet rhyme "A was an apple pie," as far as
"G got it."[9] Instances such as these do not, however, carry us back
farther than the seventeenth century.
[9] Eachard, _Observations, etc._, 1671, cited. Halliwell, _Popular
Rhymes_, 1849, p. 137.
Another clue to the date of certain rhymes is afforded by their mention
of historical persons, in a manner which shows that the rhyme in this
form was current at the time when the individual whom they mention was
prominently before the eyes of the public. Halliwell recorded from oral
tradition the following verse:--
Doctor Sacheverel
Did very well,
But Jacky Dawbin
Gave him a warning. (1849, p. 12.)
The verse refers to Dr. Sacheverel, the nonconformist minister who
preached violent sermons in St. Paul's, pointing at the Whig members as
false friends and real enemies of the Church. John Dolben (1662-1710)
called attention to them in the House of Commons, and they were declared
"malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels."
Again there is the rhyme:--
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it,
But the devil a penny was there in it,
Except the binding round it. (1849, p. 48.)
This is said to preserve the names of two celebrated courtesans of the
reign of Charles II (1892, p. 330).
The first name in the following rhyme is that of a famous border hero
who was hanged between 1529 and 1530:--
Johnny Armstrong killed a calf;
Peter Henderson got half;
Willy Wilkinson got the head,--
Ring the bell, the calf is dead. (1890, p. 358.)
Among the pieces collected by Halliwell, and told in cumulative form,
one begins and ends with the following line, which recurs at the end of
every verse:--
John Ball shot them all.
Halliwell is of opinion that this may refer to the priest who took a
prominent part in the rebellion at the time of Richard II, and who was
hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1381.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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