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  COMPARATIVE STUDIES
  IN NURSERY RHYMES




  COMPARATIVE STUDIES
    IN
  NURSERY RHYMES

    BY
  LINA ECKENSTEIN
  AUTHOR OF "WOMAN UNDER MONASTICISM"


  _There were more things in Mrs. Gurton's eye,
  Mayhap, than are dreamed of in our philosophy_

  C. S. CALVERLEY


  [Illustration]


  LONDON
  DUCKWORTH & CO.
  3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
  1906




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 gods
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 Cock 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
space 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._




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                    PAGE

      I. FIRST APPEARANCE OF RHYMES IN PRINT      1

     II. EARLY REFERENCES      13

    III. RHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS      23

     IV. RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS      36

      V. RHYMES AND BALLADS      45

     VI. RHYMES AND COUNTRY DANCES      57

    VII. THE GAME OF "SALLY WATERS"      67

   VIII. "THE LADY OF THE LAND"      78

     IX. CUSTOM RHYMES      89

      X. RIDDLE-RHYMES      104

     XI. CUMULATIVE PIECES      115

    XII. CHANTS OF NUMBERS      134

   XIII. CHANTS OF THE CREED      143

    XIV. HEATHEN CHANTS OF THE CREED      152

     XV. SACRIFICIAL HUNTING      171

    XVI. BIRD SACRIFICE      185

   XVII. THE ROBIN AND THE WREN      200

  XVIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS      215

         LIST OF FOREIGN COLLECTIONS      221

         ALPHABETICAL INDEX      223




    _... To my gaze the phantoms of the Past,
    The cherished fictions of my boyhood, rise:_

           *       *       *       *       *

    _The House that Jack built--and the Malt that lay
    Within the House--the Rat that ate the Malt--
    The Cat, that in that sanguinary way
    Punished the poor thing for its venial fault--
    The Worrier-Dog--the Cow with crumpled horn--
    And then--ah yes! and then--the Maiden all forlorn!_

    _O Mrs. Gurton--(may I call thee Gammer?)
    Thou more than mother to my infant mind!
    I loved thee better than I loved my grammar--
    I used to wonder why the Mice were blind,
    And who was gardener to Mistress Mary,
    And what--I don't know still--was meant by "quite contrary."_

    C. S. C.

    The dates that stand after the separate rhymes refer to the list of
    English collections on p. 11; the capital letters in brackets refer
    to the list of books on p. 221.




COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN NURSERY RHYMES




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 passed 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 Bellenden 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
assured 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 title _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 Parnassus_, 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 title 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, Mass., who was
from Shropshire, is said to have issued a collection of nursery rhymes
under the following title, _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
illustrations thereof were of the coarsest 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 associated 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 Gode_ 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 title _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,
Mass. 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, Mass. 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 illustrated
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 title _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 Institutes_, 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_.

1834-9. Ker, _Essays on the Archaiology of Nursery Rhymes_.

1842-3. Halliwell, _The Nursery Rhymes of England_.

1846. Halliwell, ditto. Enlarged and annotated edition.

1849. Halliwell, _Popular Rhymes_.

1864. Rimbault, _Old Nursery Rhymes with tunes_.

1870. Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_. Enlarged edition.

1876. Thiselton Dyer, _British Popular Customs_.

1890. _Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, Tales and Jingles._ Issued by
Warne & Co.

1892. Northall, G. F., _English Folk Rhymes_.

1894. Gomme, A. B., _The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and
Ireland_.

In the studies which follow, the rhymes cited have attached to them the
date of the collection in which they occur.




CHAPTER II

EARLY REFERENCES


Independently of these collections of nursery rhymes, many rhymes are
cited in general literature. This yields a further clue to their
currency at a given period. Thus Rimbault describes a book called
_Infant Institutes, part the first, or a Nurserical Essay on the Poetry
Lyric and Allegorical of the Earliest Ages_, 1797, perhaps by B. N.
Turner, the friend of Dr. Johnson, which was intended to ridicule the
Shakespeare commentators (_N. & Q._, 5, 3, 441). In the course of his
argument, the author cites a number of nursery rhymes.

Again, the poet Henry Carey, about the year 1720, ridiculed the odes
addressed to children by Ambrose Philips by likening these to a jumble
of nursery rhymes. In doing so he cited the rhymes, "Namby Pamby Jack a
Dandy," "London Bridge is broken down," "Liar Lickspit," "Jacky
Horner," "See-saw," and others, which nowadays are still included among
the ordinary stock of our rhymes.

Again, in the year 1671, John Eachard, the divine, illustrated his
argument by quoting the alphabet rhyme "A was an apple pie," as far as
"G got it."[9] Instances such as these do not, however, carry us back
farther than the seventeenth century.

    [9] Eachard, _Observations, etc._, 1671, cited. Halliwell, _Popular
    Rhymes_, 1849, p. 137.

Another clue to the date of certain rhymes is afforded by their mention
of historical persons, in a manner which shows that the rhyme in this
form was current at the time when the individual whom they mention was
prominently before the eyes of the public. Halliwell recorded from oral
tradition the following verse:--

    Doctor Sacheverel
    Did very well,
    But Jacky Dawbin
    Gave him a warning.      (1849, p. 12.)

The verse refers to Dr. Sacheverel, the nonconformist minister who
preached violent sermons in St. Paul's, pointing at the Whig members as
false friends and real enemies of the Church. John Dolben (1662-1710)
called attention to them in the House of Commons, and they were declared
"malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels."

Again there is the rhyme:--

    Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
    Kitty Fisher found it,
    But the devil a penny was there in it,
    Except the binding round it.      (1849, p. 48.)

This is said to preserve the names of two celebrated courtesans of the
reign of Charles II (1892, p. 330).

The first name in the following rhyme is that of a famous border hero
who was hanged between 1529 and 1530:--

    Johnny Armstrong killed a calf;
    Peter Henderson got half;
    Willy Wilkinson got the head,--
    Ring the bell, the calf is dead.      (1890, p. 358.)

Among the pieces collected by Halliwell, and told in cumulative form,
one begins and ends with the following line, which recurs at the end of
every verse:--

    John Ball shot them all.

Halliwell is of opinion that this may refer to the priest who took a
prominent part in the rebellion at the time of Richard II, and who was
hanged, drawn, and quartered in 1381.

But a historical name does not necessarily indicate the date of a rhyme.
For a popular name is sometimes substituted for one that has fallen into
contempt or obscurity. Moreover, a name may originally have indicated a
person other than the one with whom it has come to be associated.

A familiar nursery song printed in the collection of c. 1783, and extant
in several variants, is as follows:--

    When good King Arthur rul'd the land,
    He was a goodly king,
    He stole three pecks of barley meal
    To make a bag pudding.
    A bag pudding the king did make
    And stuff'd it well with plumbs,
    And in it put great lumps of fat,
    As big as my two thumbs.
    The king and queen did eat thereof,
    And noblemen beside,
    And what they could not eat that night
    The queen next morning fry'd.      (_c._ 1783, p. 32.)

Mr. Chappell, as cited by Halliwell, considered that this version is
not the correct one, but the one which begins:--

    King Stephen was a worthy king
    As ancient bards do sing....

The same story related in one verse only, and in simpler form, connects
it with Queen Elizabeth, in a version recovered in Berkshire.

    Our good Quane Bess, she maayde a pudden,
    An stuffed un well o' plumes;
    And in she put gurt dabs o' vat,
    As big as my two thumbs.      (1892, p. 289.)

On the face of it the last variant appears to be the oldest.

An interesting example of a change of name, and of the changing meaning
of a name, is afforded by the nursery song that is told of King Arthur,
and _mutatis mutandis_ of Old King Cole. The poem of King Arthur is as
follows:--

    When Arthur first in Court began
    To wear long hanging sleeves,
    He entertained three serving men
    And all of them were thieves.

    The first he was an Irishman,
    The second was a Scot,
    The third he was a Welshman,
    And all were knaves, I wot.

    The Irishman loved usquebaugh,
    The Scot loved ale called blue-cap.
    The Welshman he loved toasted cheese,
    And made his mouth like a mouse-trap.

    Usquebaugh burnt the Irishman,
    The Scot was drowned in ale,
    The Welshman had liked to be choked by a mouse,
    But he pulled it out by the tail.

In this form the piece is designated as a glee, and is printed in the
_New Lyric_ by Badcock of about 1720, which contains "the best songs now
in vogue."

In the nursery collection of Halliwell of 1842 there is a parallel piece
to this which stands as follows:--

    Old King Cole was a merry old soul
    And a merry old soul was he;
    Old King Cole he sat in his hole,
    And he called for his fiddlers three.

    The first he was a miller,
    The second he was a weaver,
    The third he was a tailor,
    And all were rogues together.

    The miller he stole corn,
    The weaver he stole yarn,
    The little tailor stole broadcloth
    To keep these three rogues warm.

    The miller was drowned in his dam,
    The weaver was hung in his loom,
    The devil ran away with the little tailor
    With the broadcloth under his arm.      (1842, p. 3.)

Chappell printed the words of the song of Old King Cole in several
variations, and pointed out that _The Pleasant Historie of Thomas of
Reading, or the Six Worthie Yeomen of the West_ of 1632, contains the
legend of one Cole, a cloth-maker of Reading at the time of King Henry
I, and that the name "became proverbial owing to the popularity of this
book." "There was some joke or conventional meaning among Elizabethan
dramatists," he says, "when they gave the name of Old Cole, which it is
now difficult to recover." Dekker in the _Satiromatrix_ of 1602, and
Marston in _The Malcontent_ of 1604, applied the name to a woman. On the
other hand, Ben Jonson in _Bartholomew Fair_ gave the name of Old Cole
to the sculler in the puppet-play _Hero and Leander_ which he there
introduces.[10] In face of this information, what becomes of the
identity of the supposed king?

    [10] Chappell, _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, 1893, p. 633.

On the other hand a long ancestry is now claimed for certain characters
of nursery fame who seemed to have no special claim to attention. The
following verse appears in most collections of rhymes, and judging from
the illustration which accompanies it in the toy-books, it refers
sometimes to a boy and a girl, sometimes to two boys.

    Jack and Gill went up the hill
    To fetch a bottle of water;
    Jack fell down and broke his crown,
    And Gill came tumbling after.      (_c._ 1783, p. 51.)

    [Later collections have _Jill_ and _pail_.]

This verse, as was first suggested by Baring-Gould,[11] preserves the
Scandinavian myth of the children Hjuki and Bill who were caught up by
Mani, the Moon, as they were taking water from the well Byrgir, and they
can be seen to this day in the moon carrying the bucket on the pole
between them.

    [11] Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_, 1866, p.
    189.

Another rhyme cited by Halliwell from _The New Mad Tom o'Bedlam_
mentions Jack as being the Man in the Moon:--

    The Man in the Moon drinks claret,
    But he is a dull Jack-a-dandy;
    Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,
    He should learn to drink cider or brandy.      (1842, p. 33.)

According to North German belief, a man stands in the moon pouring water
out of a pail (K., p. 304), which agrees with expressions such as "the
moon holds water." In a Norse mnemonic verse which dates from before the
twelfth century, we read, "the pail is called Saeg, the pole is called
Simul, Bil and Hiuk carry them" (C. P., I, 78).

The view that Jack and Jill are mythological or heroic beings finds
corroboration in the expression "for Jak nor for Gille," which occurs in
the Townley Mysteries of about the year 1460.[12] By this declaration a
superhuman power is called in as witness. The same names are coupled
together also in an ancient divination rhyme used to decide in favour of
one of two courses of action. Two scraps of paper slightly moistened
were placed on the back of the hand, and the following invocation was
pronounced before and after breathing upon them to see which would fly
first. The sport was taught by Goldsmith to Miss Hawkins when a child,
as she related to Forster.[13]

    [12] Cited _Murray's Dictionary_: Jack.

    [13] Forster, J., _Life of Goldsmith_, II, p. 71.

    There were two blackbirds sat upon a hill
    The one was named Jack, the other named Jill.
    Fly away Jack! Fly away Jill!
    Come again Jack! Come again Jill!      (1810, p. 45.)

The lines suggest the augur's action with regard to the flight of birds.
The same verse has been recited to me in the following variation:--

    Peter and Paul sat on the wall,
    Fly away Peter! Fly away Paul!
    Come again Peter! Come again Paul!

In this case the names of Christian apostles have been substituted for
heathen names which, at the time when the _names_ were changed, may
still have carried a suggestion of profanity. The following rhyme on
Jack and Gill occurs in an early nursery collection:--

    I won't be my father's Jack,
    I won't be my mother's Gill,
    I will be the fiddler's wife
    And have music when I will.
    T'other little tune, t'other little tune,
    Pr'ythee, love, play me, t'other little tune.      (_c._ 1783, p. 25.)




CHAPTER III

RHYMES AND POPULAR SONGS


On looking more closely at the contents of our nursery collections, we
find that a large proportion of so-called nursery rhymes are songs or
snatches of songs, which are preserved also as broadsides, or appeared
in printed form in early song-books. These songs or parts of songs were
included in nursery collections because they happened to be current at
the time when these collections were made, and later compilers
transferred into their own collections what they found in earlier ones.
Many songs are preserved in a number of variations, for popular songs
are in a continual state of transformation. Sometimes new words are
written to the old tune, and differ from those that have gone before in
all but the rhyming words at the end of the lines; sometimes new words
are introduced which entirely change the old meaning. Many variations
of songs are born of the moment, and would pass away with it, were it
not that they happen to be put into writing and thereby escape falling
into oblivion.

In _Mother Goose's Melody_ stands a song in six verses which begins:--

    There was a little man who woo'd a little maid,
    And he said: "Little maid, will you wed, wed, wed?
    I have little more to say, will you? Aye or nay?
    For little said is soonest