Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes Part 4

Halliwell cites this song in a form in which the words are put into the lips of the king, and a.s.sociates it with the amus.e.m.e.nts of Twelfth Night:--

Lavender blue, _fiddle faddle_, lavender green.

When I am king, _fiddle faddle_, you shall be queen, etc.

(1849, p. 237.)

The expression _diddle diddle_ according to Murray's Dictionary means to make music without the utterance of words, while _fiddle faddle_ is said to indicate nonsense, and to fiddle is to fuss. But both words seem to go back to the a.s.sociation of dancing, as is suggested by the songs on Twelfth Night, or by the following nursery rhyme which refers to the same celebration.

A cat came fiddling out of the barn, With a pair of bagpipes under her arm, She could sing nothing but fiddle c.u.m fee, The mouse has married the humble bee; Pipe, cat, dance, mouse; We'll have a wedding in our good house. (1842, p. 102.)

The following variation of this verse occurs in the _Nursery Songs_ published by Rusher:--

A cat came fiddling out of a barn, With a pair of bagpipes under her arm, She sang nothing but fiddle-de-dee, Worried a mouse and a humble bee.

Puss began purring, mouse ran away, And off the bee flew with a wild huzza!

In both cases the cat was fiddling, that is moving to instrumental music without the utterance of words, and called upon the others to do so while she played the pipes. Her a.s.sociation with an actual fiddle, however, is preserved in the following rhyme which I cite in two of its numerous variations:--

Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, The cow jump'd over the moon!

The little dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish lick't up the spoon. (1797, cited by Rimbault.)

Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed to see such craft, And the dish ran away with the spoon. (_c._ 1783, p. 27.)

This rhyme also refers to the revelry which accompanied a feast, probably the one of Twelfth Night also.

CHAPTER IV

RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS

Many of our longer nursery pieces first appeared in print in the diminutive toy-books already described, which represent so curious a development in the literature of the eighteenth century. These books were sometimes hawked about in one or more sheets, which were afterwards folded so as to form a booklet of sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four pages. Others were issued sewn and bound in brilliant covers, at a cost of as much as a shilling or eighteen pence. Usually each page contained one verse which was ill.u.s.trated by an appropriate cut. In the toy-books which tell a consecutive story, the number of verses of the several pieces seem to have been curtailed or enlarged in order to fit the required size of the book.

It is in these toy-books that we first come across famous nursery pieces such as the _Alphabet_ which begins:--

A was an Archer, who shot at a frog, B was a blind man, and led by a dog ... etc.

This first appeared in _A Little Book for Little Children_ by T. W., sold at the Ring in Little Britain. It contains a portrait of Queen Anne, and probably goes back to the early part of the eighteenth century.

_The Topbook of all_, already mentioned, which is of about 1760, contains the oldest version that I have come across of the words used in playing _The Gaping, Wide-mouthed, Waddling Frog_, each verse of which is ill.u.s.trated by a rough cut. Again, _The Tragic Death of A, Apple Pie_, which, as mentioned above, was cited as far back as 1671, forms the contents of a toy-book issued by J. Evans about the year 1791 at the price of a farthing. _The Death and Burial of c.o.c.k Robin_ fills a toy-book which was published by J. Marshall, London, and again by Rusher at Banbury; both editions are undated. Again _The Courtship, Marriage, and Picnic Dinner of c.o.c.k Robin and Jenny Wren_ form the contents of a toy-book dated 1810 and published by Harris, and _The Life and Death of Jenny Wren_ appeared in a toy-book dated 1813, issued by J. Evans.

Another famous toy-book contained _The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog_. This story was first issued in toy-book form by J.

Harris, "successor to E. Newbery at the corner of St. Paul's Churchyard," probably at the beginning of 1806, at the cost of eighteen pence. A copy of the second edition, which mentions the date 1 May, 1806, is at the British Museum. It contains the words "to T. B. Esquire, M.P. county of XX, at whose suggestion and at whose house these notable sketches were first designed, this volume is with all suitable deference dedicated by his humble servant S. C. M." The coffin which is represented in one of the cuts in the book bears the initials S. C. M., and the date 1804. This inscribing of the author's initials on a coffin is quite in keeping with the tone of toy-book literature.

In October, 1805, J. Harris had published _Whimsical Incidents, or the Power of Music, a poetic tale by a near relation of Old Mother Hubbard_, which has little to recommend it, and contains nothing on the dog. On its first page stands a verse which figures independently as a nursery rhyme in some later collections:--

The cat was asleep by the side of the fire, Her mistress snor'd loud as a pig, When Jack took the fiddle by Jenny's desire, And struck up a bit of a jig. (1810, p. 33.)

J. Harris also published in March, 1806, _Pug's Visit, or the Disasters of Mr. Punch_, a sequel to the _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard and her Dog_. This has a dedication framed in the same style, "To P. A.

Esquire ... by his humble servant W. F."

The success of the _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard and her Dog_ was instantaneous and lasting. In _The Courtship of Jenny Wren_, which is dated 1810, while its cuts bear the date 1806, Parson Rook is represented carrying "Mother Hubbard's book," and a foot-note is added to the effect that "upwards of ten thousand copies of this celebrated work have been distributed in various parts of the country in a few months." The _Comic Adventures_ were read all over London and in the provinces, both in the original and in pirated editions, of which I have seen copies issued by J. Evans of Long Lane, West Smithfield; by W. S.

Johnson of 60 St. Martin's Lane; by J. Marshall of Aldermary Churchyard; and by others. A very diminutive toy-book containing verses of the tale of Mother Hubbard, ill.u.s.trated with rough cuts, is on view at South Kensington Museum among the exhibits of A. Pearson. I do not know its publisher.

The _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard_ are usually told in fourteen verses, which refer to the dame's going to the cupboard, to her going for bread, for a coffin, for tripe, beer, wine, fruit, a coat, a hat, a wig, shoes, hose, and linen. The story ends:--

The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow, The dame said, "Your servant," the dog said "Bow-wow."

But some editions have an additional rhyme on the dame's going for fish; and the edition at South Kensington has the verse:--

Old Mother Hubbard sat down in a chair, And danced her dog to a delicate air; She went to the garden to buy him a pippin, When she came back the dog was skipping.

In the edition of Rusher, instead of "the dog made a bow," we read "Prin and Puss made a bow."

In Halliwell's estimation the tale of Mother Hubbard and her dog is of some antiquity, "were we merely to judge," he says, "of the rhyme of laughing to coffin in the third verse."

She went to the undertaker's to buy him a coffin, When she came back the poor dog was laughing.

But it seems possible also that the author of the poem had running in his mind a verse containing this rhyme, which occurs already in the _Infant Inst.i.tutes_ of 1797, where it stands as follows:--

There was a little old woman and she liv'd in a shoe, She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

She crumm'd 'em some porridge without any bread And she borrow'd a beetle, and she knock'd 'em all o' th' head.

Then out went the old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin And when she came back she found 'em all a-loffing.

This piece contains curious mythological allusions, as we shall see later.

It may be added that the nursery collection of 1810 (p. 37) contains the first verse only of Mother Hubbard, which favours the view expressed by Halliwell, that the compiler of the famous book did not invent the subject nor the metre of his piece, but wrote additional verses to an older story.

The a.s.sociation of Mother Hubbard and the dog may be relatively new, but the name Mother Hubbard itself has some claim to antiquity. For a political satire by Edmund Spenser was called _Prosopopeia or Mother Hubberd's Tale_. It was a youthful effort of the poet, and was soon forgotten. In this piece "the good old woman was height Mother Hubberd who did far surpa.s.s the rest in honest mirth," and who related the fable of the fox and the ape. Also Thomas Middleton in 1604 published _Father Hubburd's Tale, or the Ant and the Nightingale_, in the introduction to which he addressed the reader as follows:--"Why I call these Father Hubburd's tales, is not to have them called in again as the Tale of Mother Hubburd. The world would shew little judgment in that i' faith; and I should say then _plena stultorum omnia_; for I entreat (_i.e._ treat) here neither of rugged (_i.e._ ragged) bears or apes, no, nor the lamentable downfall of the old wife's platters--I deal with no such metal ... etc."

We do not know that Spenser's tale was "called in again," nor does it mention ragged bears and platters. Middleton must therefore be referring to a different production to which obstruction was offered by the public authorities. In any case the name of Mother Hubburd, or Hubbard, was familiar long before the publication of the story of the dame and her dog.

Father Hubberd, who is mentioned by Middleton, figures in nursery lore also. A rhyme is cited which mentions him in connection with the traditional cupboard:--

What's in the cupboard? says Mr Hubbard; A knuckle of veal, says Mr Beal; Is that all? says Mr Ball; And enough too, says Mr Glue; And away they all flew. (_N. & Q._, 7, IV, 166.)

Were they figured as cats?

The form of verse of this piece on Father Hubbard reproduces the chiming of bells. The same form of verse is used also in the following:--

"Fire! Fire!" says the town-crier; "Where, where?" says Goody Blair; "Down the town," said Goody Brown; "I'll go and see't," said Goody Fleet, "So will I," said Goody Fry. (1890, p. 315.)

The old play of _Ralph Roister Doister_, written about the year 1550, ends with a "peele of bells rung by the parish clerk," which is in the same form of verse:--

First bell: When dyed he, when dyed he?

Second bell: We have him! We have him!

Third bell: Roister doister, Roister doister.

Fourth bell: He cometh, he cometh.