Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 1

Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes.

by Lina Eckenstein.

TO THE GENTLE READER

The walls of the temple of King Sety at Abydos in Upper Egypt are decorated with sculptured scenes which represent the cult of the G.o.ds and the offerings brought to them. In a side chapel there is depicted the following curious scene. A dead figure lies extended on a bier; sorrowing hawks surround him; a flying hawk reaches down a seal amulet from above. Had I succeeded in procuring a picture of the scene, it would stand reproduced here; for the figure and his mourners recalled the quaint little woodcut of a toy-book which told the tale of the Death and Burial of c.o.c.k Robin. The sculptures of Sety date from the fourteenth century before Christ; the knell of the robin can be traced back no further than the middle of the eighteenth century A.D. Can the s.p.a.ce that lies between be bridged over, and the conception of the dead robin be linked on to that of the dead hawk? However that may be, the sight of the sculptured scene strengthened my resolve to place some of the coincidences of comparative nursery lore before the gentle reader.

It lies with him to decide whether the wares are such as to make a further instalment desirable.

_23 September, 1906._

CHAPTER I

FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES IN PRINT

The study of folk-lore has given a new interest to much that seemed insignificant and trivial. Among the unheeded possessions of the past that have gained a fresh value are nursery rhymes. A nursery rhyme I take to be a rhyme that was pa.s.sed on by word of mouth and taught to children before it was set down in writing and put into print. The use of the term in this application goes back to the early part of the nineteenth century. In 1834 John Gawler, afterwards b.e.l.l.e.n.den Ker, published the first volume of his _Essay on the Archaiology of Popular English Phrases and Nursery Rhymes_, a fanciful production. Prior to this time nursery rhymes were usually spoken of as nursery songs.

The interest in these "unappreciated trifles of the nursery," as Rimbault called them, was aroused towards the close of the eighteenth century. In a letter which Joseph Ritson wrote to his little nephew, he mentioned the collection of rhymes known as _Mother Goose's Melody_, and a.s.sured him that he also would set about collecting rhymes.[1] His collection of rhymes is said, in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, to have been published at Stockton in 1783 under the t.i.tle _Gammer Gurton's Garland_. A copy of an anonymous collection of rhymes published by Christopher and Jennett at Stockton, which is called _Gammer Gurton's Garland or the Nursery Parna.s.sus_, is now at the British Museum, and is designated as a "new edition with additions." It bears no name and no date, but its contents, which consist of over seventy rhymes, agree with parts 1 and 2 of a large collection of nursery rhymes, including over one hundred and forty pieces, which were published in 1810 by the publisher R. Triphook, of 37 St. James Street, London, who also issued other collections made by Ritson.

[1] _Letters of Joseph Ritson_, edited by his Nephew, 1833. 27 April, 1781.

The collection of rhymes known as _Mother Goose's Melody_, which aroused the interest of Ritson, was probably the toy-book which was entered for copyright in London on 28 December, 1780. Its t.i.tle was _Mother Goose's Melody or Sonnets for the Cradle_, and it was entered by John Carnan, the stepson of the famous publisher John Newbery, who had succeeded to the business in partnership with Francis Newbery.[2] Of this book no copy is known to exist. Toy-books, owing to the careless way in which they are handled, are amongst the most perishable literature. Many toy-books are known to have been issued in hundreds of copies, yet of some of these not a single copy can now be traced.

[2] Welsh, Ch., _A Publisher of the Last Century_, 1885, p. 272.

The name Mother Goose, its connection with nursery rhymes, and the date of issue of _Mother Goose's Melody_, have been the subject of some contention. Thomas Fleet, a well-known printer of Boston, Ma.s.s., who was from Shropshire, is said to have issued a collection of nursery rhymes under the following t.i.tle, _Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children_, printed by Thomas Fleet at his printing-house, Pudding Lane, 1719, price two coppers.[3] The existence of this book at the date mentioned has been both affirmed and denied.[4] John Fleet Eliot, a great-grandson of the printer, accepted its existence, and in 1834 wrote with regard to it as follows: "It is well known to antiquaries that more than a hundred years ago there was a small book in circulation in London bearing the name of _Rhymes for the Nursery or Lulla-Byes for Children_, which contained many of the identical pieces of _Mother Goose's Melodies_ of the present day. It contained also other pieces, more silly if possible, and some that the American types of the present day would refuse to give off an impression. The cuts or ill.u.s.trations thereof were of the coa.r.s.est description." On the other hand, the date of 1719 in connection with the expression "two coppers,"

has been declared impossible. However this may be, no copy of the book of Fleet or of its presumed prototype has been traced.

[3] Appleton, _Cyclopaedia of American Biography_, 1887: Fleet, Thomas.

[4] Whitmore, W. H., _The original Mother Goose's Melody_, 1892, p.

40 ff.

The name Mother Goose, which John Newbery and others a.s.sociated with nursery rhymes, may have been brought into England from France, where _La Mere Oie_ was connected with the telling of fairy tales as far back as 1650.[5] _La Mere Oie_ is probably a lineal descendant of _La Reine Pedauque_, otherwise _Berthe au grand pied_, but there is the possibility also of the relationship to _Fru G.o.de_ or _Fru Gosen_ of German folk-lore. We first come across Mother Goose in England in connection with the famous puppet-showman Robert Powell, who set up his show in Bath and in Covent Garden, London, between 1709 and 1711. The repertory of his plays, which were of his own composing, included _Whittington and his Cat_, _The Children in the Wood_, _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, _Robin Hood and Little John_, _Mother Shipton_, and _Mother Goose_.[6] A play or pantomime called _Mother Goose_ was still popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century, for the actor Grimaldi obtained his greatest success in it in 1806.[7]

[5] Lang, A., _Perrault's Popular Tales_, 1888. Introduction, XXIV.

[6] Collier, J. P., _Punch and Judy, citing "A Second Tale of a Tub or the History of Robert Powell, the puppet-showman, 1715."_

[7] _Dictionary of National Biography_, Grimaldi.

The name Gammer Gurton which Ritson chose for his collection of rhymes, was traditional also. _Gammer Gurton's Needle_ is the name of a famous old comedy which dates from about the year 1566. The name also appears in connection with nursery rhymes in a little toy-book, issued by Lumsden in Glasgow, which is called _Gammer Gurton's Garland of Nursery Songs, and Toby Tickle's Collection of Riddles_. This is undated. It occurs also in an insignificant little toy-book called _The Topbook of all_, in connection with Nurse Lovechild, Jacky Nory, and Tommy Thumb.

This book is also undated, but contains the picture of a shilling of 1760 which is referred to as "a new shilling."

The date at which nursery rhymes appeared in print yields one clue to their currency at a given period. The oldest dated collection of rhymes which I have seen bears the t.i.tle _Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book_, vol.

II, "sold by M. Cooper according to Act of Parliament." It is printed partly in red, partly in black, and on its last page bears the date 1744. A copy of this is at the British Museum.

Next to this in date is a toy-book which is called _The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book_, printed and sold at the printing office in Marlborough Street, 1771. A copy of this is in the library of Boston, Ma.s.s. It contains nine nursery rhymes at the end, which have been reprinted by Whitmore.

Other collections of rhymes issued in America have been preserved which are reprints of earlier English collections. Among these is _Tommy Thumb's Song Book for all Little Masters and Misses_, by Nurse Lovechild, which is dated 1788, and was printed by Isaiah Thomas at Worcester, Ma.s.s. A copy is at the British Museum.

Isaiah Thomas was in direct connection with England, where he procured, in 1786, the first fount of music type that was carried to America.

Among many toy-books of his that are reprints from English publications, he issued _Mother Goose's Melody, Sonnets for the Cradle_. A copy of this book which is designated as the third Worcester edition, bears the date 1799, and has been reprinted in facsimile by Whitmore. It was probably identical with the collection of rhymes for which the firm of Newberry received copyright in 1780, and which was mentioned by Ritson.

Other copies of _Mother Goose's Melody_, one bearing the watermark of 1803, and the other issued by the firm of John Marshall, which is undated, are now at the Bodleian.[8] Thus the name of Mother Goose was largely used in connection with nursery rhymes.

[8] Whitmore, loc. cit., p. 6.

The second half of the eighteenth century witnessed a great development in toy-book literature. The leader of the movement was John Newbery, a man of considerable attainments, who sold drugs and literature, and who came from Reading to London in 1744, and settled in St. Paul's Churchyard, where his establishment became a famous centre of the book trade. Among those whom he had in his employ were Griffith Jones (d.

1786) and Oliver Goldsmith (d. 1774), whose versatility and delicate humour gave a peculiar charm to the books for children which they helped to produce.

In London Newbery had a rival in John Marshall, whose shop in Aldermary Churchyard was known already in 1787 as the _Great A, and Bouncing B Toy Factory_. This name was derived from a current nursery rhyme on the alphabet, which occurs as follows:--

Great A, little a, Bouncing B, The cat's in the cupboard, and she can't see. (1744, p. 22.)

A number of provincial publishers followed their example. Among them were Thomas Saint, in Newcastle, who between 1771 and 1774 employed the brothers Bewick; Kendrew, in York; Lumsden, in Glasgow; Drewey, in Derby; Rusher, in Banbury; and others. The toy-books that were issued by these firms have much likeness to one another, and are often ill.u.s.trated by the same cuts. Most of them are undated. Among the books issued by Rusher were _Nursery Rhymes from the Royal Collections_, and _Nursery Poems from the Ancient and Modern Poets_, which contain some familiar rhymes in versions which differ from those found elsewhere.

Besides these toy-book collections, there is a large edition of _Gammer Gurton's Garland_, of the year 1810, which contains the collections of 1783 with considerable additions. In the year 1826, Chambers published his _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, which contained some fireside stories and nursery rhymes, the number of which was considerably increased in the enlarged edition of 1870. In the year 1842, Halliwell, under the auspices of the Percy Society, issued the _Nursery Rhymes of England_, which were reprinted in 1843, and again in an enlarged edition in 1846.

Three years later he supplemented this book by a collection of _Popular Rhymes_ which contain many traditional game rhymes and many valuable remarks and criticisms.

These books, together with the rhymes of Gawler, and a collection of _Old Nursery Rhymes with Tunes_, issued by Rimbault in 1864, exhaust the collections of nursery rhymes which have a claim on the attention of the student. Most of their contents were subsequently collected and issued by the firm of Warne & Co., under the t.i.tle _Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles_, of which the issue of 1890 contains over seven hundred pieces. In the list which follows, I have arranged these various collections of rhymes in the order of their issue, with a few modern collections that contain further rhymes. Of those which are bracketed I have not succeeded in finding a copy.

(1719. _Songs for the Nursery, or Mother Goose's Melodies._ Printed by T. Fleet.)

1744. _Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book._

_c._ 1760. _The Topbook of all._

(1771. _Tommy Thumb's Little Story Book._ The nine rhymes which this contains are cited by Whitmore.)

(1780. _Mother Goose's Melody_, for which copyright was taken by John Carnan.)

_c._ 1783. _Gammer Gurton's Garland._

1788. _Tommy Thumb's Song Book_, issued by Isaiah Thomas.

(1797. _Infant Inst.i.tutes_, cited by Halliwell and Rimbault.)

1799. _Mother Goose's Melody._ Facsimile reprint by Whitmore.

1810. _Gammer Gurton's Garland._ The enlarged edition, published by R.

Triphook, 37 St. James Street, London.

1826. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_.