The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.Gomme, Alice Bertha
History
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.
Gomme, Alice Bertha
Folklore -- Great Britain; Games -- Great Britain
XIII. Trip trap over the grass,
If you please, will you let one of your [eldest] daughters
come,
Come and dance with me?
I will give you pots and pans,
I will give you brass,
I will give you anything
For a pretty lass—
No!
I will give you gold and silver,
I will give you pearl,
I will give you anything
For a pretty girl.
Take one, take one, the fairest you may see.
The fairest one that I can see
Is pretty [Nancy], come to me;
You shall have a duck, my dear,
And you shall have a drake,
And you shall have a young man,
Apprentice for your sake.
If this young man should happen to die,
And leave this poor woman a widow,
The bells shall all ring and the birds shall all sing,
And we’ll clap hands together.
—Halliwell’s _Popular Nursery Rhymes_, cccxxxii.
XIV. Will you take gold and silver, or will you take brass,
Will you take anything for a pretty lass?
No! we’ll not take gold and silver, no! we’ll not take brass;
We’ll not take anything for a pretty lass.
Will you take the keys of school, or will you take brass?
Will you take anything for a pretty lass?
Yes! we’ll take the keys of school; yes! we will take brass;
We will take anything for a pretty lass.
Come, my dear [Mary Anne], and give me your right hand,
And you shall have a duck, my dear,
You shall have a drake;
You shall have a nice young man
To fiddle for your sake.
The birds will sing, the bells will ring,
And we’ll all clap hands together.
—Congleton Workhouse School (Miss A. E. Tremlow).
(_c_) The popular version of this game is played by the greater number
of the children forming a line on one side with joined hands, and one
child (sometimes two or more) facing them, advancing and retiring while
singing the verses. When he asks the question, “Will you come?” one girl
on the opposite side answers “No!” and afterwards “Yes!” When this is
said, she goes to the opposite side, and the two dance round together
while singing the next verse. The game begins again by the two singing
the verses, and thus getting a third child to join them, when the game
proceeds for a fourth, and so on.
The Congleton and London versions are played by two lines of children of
about equal numbers. In the Lincolnshire version the above description
answers, except that when the last line is sung every one claps hands.
In the Sussex version the child at the end of the line is taken over by
the child who sings the verses, and they lock their little fingers
together while singing the remainder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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