Goosey Goosey Gander

Goosey goosey gander, whither shall I wander,
Upstairs and downstairs, in my lady’s chamber,
There I met an old man who wouldn’t say his prayers,
So I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.

G is for ‘Goosey Gander’ – a wondeful illustration from Walter Crane’s ‘The Absurd ABC‘ – he really is being chucked down the stairs! [E is for the 'Englishman' of the FEE FI FO FUM I smell the blood of an englishman rhyme and I will have to post the song about the Frog he would a wooing go - it is a great tune.]

I think this fits in the category of pretty bizarre as rhymes go, though reading  up on it in the The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes I find it could be an amalgamation of a couple of rhymes. One refers to pulling the legs of a daddy long legs and throwing it down the stairs which make more sense. It is a nice example of how repetition over time can introduce nonsenses into little vignettes of everyday life.

It first appears in print in a wonderful book ‘Gammer Gurton’s Garland or The Nursery Parnassus‘ which has a wonderful sub-title ‘A Choice Collection of Pretty Songs and Verses for the Amusement of all Little Good Children who can neither Read nor Run’!

 

Oh dear what can the matter be!

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
Dear dear, what can the matter be?
Oh dear, what can the matter be?
Johnny’s so long at the fair.

He promised he’d buy me a fairing would please me,
And then for a kiss oh he vowed he would tease me,
He promised he’d buy me a bunch of blue ribbons,
To tie up my bonnie brown hair.

This girl in a 1916 illustration by Blanche Fisher Wright has the wistfulness I get from this song. It may have originated as a Scots song, in the late 1700s. It would make a lovely pairing with ‘My bonny lies over the ocean’, which I guess also has Scots origin. According to my Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes, there are more verses, and in fact a more nursery version – but I don’t think it fits well to the tune – or not the one I know at any rate. I like it none the less and can see myself chanting it as I try to get my kids dressed!

Jonny shall have a new bonnet,
And Jonny shall go to the fair,
And Jonny shall have a blue ribbon
To tie up his bonny brown hair.
…..
And here’s a leg for a stocking,
And here’s a leg for shoe,
And he has a kiss for his daddy,
And two for his mammy, I trow.

Curly locks curly locks

Curly locks, curly locks wilt though be mine,
Though shalt not wash dishes, nor yet feed the swine,
But sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam,
And dine upon strawberries, sugar and cream.

I’m not sure there are many ladies around today that sit around on cushions sewing fine seams and eating strawberries and cream!

This illustration is from a lovely book by Kate Greenaway - another illustrator I love – called The April Baby’s Book of Tunes. It is a whole story discussing the rhymes and what is known about them. Bearing in mind this was written in 1900:

“Perhaps she did marry him, and is sitting to this day on her cushion, and has grown dreadfully fat through never moving and eating so much sugar and cream, and hasn’t even the energy to curl her hair any more.”

All the current exhortations to exercise and eat healthily, and the dangers of obesity really chime with this, though perhaps those messages are couched rather more positively these days!?

The book also shows that these ryhmes are often set to different tunes.

(perhaps tunes will be less diverse these days with easy music reproduction and distribution?)

Sing a song of sixpence

Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,
And when the pie was opened, the birds began to sing,
Now wasn’t that a dainty dish to set before the king.

The king was in his counting house, counting out his money,
The queen was in her parlour, eating bread and honey,
The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes,
When along came a blackbird and pecked off her nose.

Never fails to tickle the little ones as their noses are ‘pecked’ off.  I was amused to find from another Nursery Rhymes website that on the BBC’s Listen with Mother in the 1950s they used to add the following to the end of the rhyme:

“There was such a commotion that little Jenny Wren
Flew down from the tree tops and popped it on again”

Though it doesn’t sing so well to the tune I know.

This lovely illustration again by Walter Crane, from a beautiful book that is called ‘The Sing a Song of Sixpence Picture Book’ and has an illustration for each line of the ryhme.

The idea of birds singing inside a pie is also an idea worth exploring – as Heston Blumental did, by making a pie with homing pigeons in his Medieval Feast on Channel 4 a few years ago.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Mary, mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

This amazing illustration by W W Denslow quite accurately depicts the bizarreness of this little ditty, note the cheeky smiles on the bells and cockle shells. I have been singing it in the context of a theme of growing things, the kids like the idea of little people popping up in their garden!

Historically there are possible religious implications and a possible connection with Mary Queen of Scots, but it is only conjecture, as the first print version of this is in the mid 1700s, some 200 years after Mary Queen of Scots, and also the religious upheavals of the Stuart era.

Pop goes the weasel

Up and down the city road,
In and out the eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.

Half a pound of tupenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.

A tune that ‘pops’ up everywhere – we have a jack in the box that plays it, and pops at the right moment, as you’d expect. These lyrics are the ones I know, but there are all sorts of other options out there, perhaps the kids should be making their own up? A version arranged by Charles Twiggs in 1853 is overtly political.

Queen Victoria’s very sick
Napoleon’s got the measels
Sebastopol is won at last
Pop goes the weasel.

Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John

Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John
Went to bed with his trousers on;
One shoe off, and one shoe on,
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.

A lovely bit of nonsense! The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes suggests this one was well known at the turn of the 1800s, though in those days John wore breeches rather than trousers, or perhaps even stockings, and maybe boots rather than shoes? Might be a good rhyme to illustrate how clothing has changed through the ages. The above illustration is probably from the 1930s when boys wore short trousers!

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clements

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clements,
You owe me five farthings, say the bells of St Martins,
When will you pay me, say the bells of Old Bailey,
When I get rich, say the bells of Shoreditch,
When will that be, say the bells of Stepney,
How should I know, says the big old bell at Bow,
And here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes chopper to chop off your head.

I’d love to take the kids on a walk around London (though it might be too far for their little legs!) to show them some of the churches of this song. The sound of church bells is still a feature of my little corner of London as occasionally they have bell ringers at my local church, but more often than not, the noise of the church bells is rather drowned out by the sirens! From a historical point of view perhaps this helps to commuicate how significant the sounds of bells were in the soundscape of London pre-automobiles. In fact, the following song in ‘The Baby’s Opera’, the Walter Crane book from which the illustration below is taken, is called ‘St Pauls Steeple’ and has a very bell like melody as well.

It is of course a very old song, and there are all sorts of variations to the lyrics around. There is a game to go with it, where the child passing under the arch (as beautifully illustrated by Walter Crane above) at the moment of the ‘chop’ finds themself caught, and placed behind one side of the original arch.. culminating in a tug of war with the original arch holders in the middle. I’ve never tried it with any of my groups but will when the right occasion arises!

1 2 3 4 5, Once I caught a fish alive,

1 2 3 4 5,
Once I caught a fish alive,
6 7 8 9 10,
Then I let it go again,
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so!
Which little finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right!

A classic counting rhyme, with good actions too.. and to my surprise it has very traditional origins, a version with a hare rather than a fish, can be traced back to 1765, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. It also points out that the song lends itself to a variety of versions, and quote a version used by the Baptist Mission turning ‘Once I caught a fish alive’ to ‘Jesus Christ is still alive’!

I also have a lovely book – Stomp Chomp Big Roars! Here come the Dinosaurs! by Kaye Urmansky which has a dinosaur version in it.

1 2 3 4 5
Five fat dinosaurs take a dive
6 7 8 9 10
Time to fill the swamp again!

 

Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman

Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,
Ce qui cause mon tourment?
Papa veut que je raisonne,
Comme une grande personne.
Moi, je dis que les bonbons
Valent mieux que la raison.

Roughly translated:

Ah! I tell you mummy,
What is causing me torment?
Daddy wants me to reason
Like a grown-up
Me, I say that sweets
are worth more than reason.

The song first appeared in print the mid 1700s, 1761, 1771 depending on what you read. The tune you will recognise as Twinkle, Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep, or even the Alpabet song..

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote an amazing set of variations on the tune in the 1780s.

I love this version by Lucienne Vernay et les Quatre Barbus (a French group from the late 50s who made several albums of French childrens songs), which is a nod to the Mozart arrangements, though not using them in their entirety.