The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.Gomme, Alice Bertha
General
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.
Gomme, Alice Bertha
Folklore -- Great Britain; Games -- Great Britain
The next incident, No. 10 of the analysis, goes through all the games
except one (West Grinstead), where the very obvious corruption of
“willows” for “windows” occurs. This incident takes us to the houses of
the village; and thus the two lines show us a procession, first, going
round outside the boundary of the village, and, secondly, proceeding in
serpentine fashion through the houses. Incident 13 has a few variations
which do not point to anything more than verbal alteration, due to the
changes which have occurred in the conception of the game. Incidents 17
to 22 are not constant to all the versions, and their variations are of
an unimportant character. Incident 27 is an important element in the
game. The prevalence of London as the place of assignation is probably
due to the influence of that city in the popular mind; but the real
significance seems to be that the lover-husband follows his bride to her
own village. In only two versions is this incident varied (No. 28) to
indicate that the husband took his wife with him, and only three
versions have dropped out the incident altogether.
Abnormal incidents occur in only seven versions, and they are not of
great significance. The Lincolnshire and Sporle versions have a line of
general introduction (No. 1) before the game proper begins. Incidents 8
and 9 occur only in the Lincolnshire version, and do not disturb the
general movement beyond indicating that the game has become, or is
becoming, an indoor game. Incident 21 is obviously a modern line. Nos.
26 and 31 suggest a chase after a fugitive pair which, as they do not
occur in other versions, must be considered as later introductions,
belonging, however, to the period when runaway marriages were more
frequent than they are now, and thus taking us back to, at least, the
beginning of this century; while the significant and pretty variant No.
32 shows that the game has lost touch with the actual life of the
people. No. 30 in the Fraserburgh version has a suspicious likeness to a
line in the American song “I’m off to Charlestown,” but as it occurs
only in this one version it cannot count as an important element in the
history of the game.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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