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LATELY PUBLISHED,

_Royal 18mo, with 38 Designs by W. B. SCOTT, Director of the
School of Design, Newcastle-on-Tyne, bound in illuminated
cloth, 4s. 6d._

THE NURSERY RHYMES OF ENGLAND, COLLECTED CHIEFLY FROM ORAL TRADITION.
BY JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, ESQ. FOURTH EDITION.




POPULAR RHYMES

AND

NURSERY TALES:

A SEQUEL TO THE

Nursery Rhymes of England.

BY JAMES ORCHARD HALLIWELL, ESQ.

LONDON:

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,

4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE.

MDCCCXLIX.

C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.




      Tales of my Nursery! shall that still loved spot,
      That window corner, ever be forgot,
      Where through the woodbine when with upward ray
      Gleam'd the last shadow of departing day,
      Still did I sit, and with unwearied eye,
      Read while I wept, and scarcely paused to sigh!
      In that gay drawer, with fairy fictions stored,
      When some new tale was added to my hoard,
      While o'er each page my eager glance was flung,
      'Twas but to learn what female fate was sung;
      If no sad maid the castle shut from light,
      I heeded not the giant and the knight.

      Sweet Cinderella, even before the ball,
      How did I love thee--ashes, rags, and all!
      What bliss I deem'd it to have stood beside,
      On every virgin when thy shoe was tried!
      How long'd to see thy shape the slipper suit!
      But, dearer than the slipper, loved the foot.

                                                  ANON.




PREFACE.


It were greatly to be desired that the instructors of our children could
be persuaded how much is lost by rejecting the venerable relics of
nursery traditional literature, and substituting in their place the
present cold, unimaginative,--I had almost said, unnatural,--prosaic
good-boy stories. "In the latter case," observes Sir Walter Scott,
"their minds are, as it were, put into the stocks, like their feet at
the dancing-school, and the moral always consists in good conduct being
crowned with success. Truth is, I would not give one tear shed over
Little Red Riding Hood for all the benefit to be derived from a hundred
histories of Jemmy Goodchild. I think the selfish tendencies will be
soon enough acquired in this arithmetical age; and that, to make the
higher class of character, our own wild fictions--like our own simple
music--will have more effect in awakening the fancy and elevating the
disposition, than the colder and more elaborate compositions of modern
authors and composers."

Deeply impressed with this truth, and firmly convinced of the
"imagination-nourishing" power of the wild and fanciful lore of the old
nursery, I have spared no labour in collecting the fragments which have
been traditionally preserved in our provinces. The object is not so much
to present to the reader a few literary trifles, though even their
curiosity and value in several important discussions must not be
despised, as to rescue in order to restore; a solemn recompense due from
literature for having driven them away; and to recall the memory to
early associations, in the hope that they who love such recollections
will not suffer the objects of them to disappear with the present
generation.

In arranging the materials gathered for this little volume, I have
followed, in some respects, the plan adopted by Mr. Robert Chambers, in
his elegant work, the Popular Rhymes of Scotland; but our vernacular
anthology will be found to contain so much which does not occur in any
shape in that of the sister country, that the two collections have not
as much similarity as might have been expected. Together, they will
eventually contain nearly all that is worth preserving of what may be
called the natural literature of Great Britain. Mr. Chambers, indeed,
may be said to have already exhausted the subject for his own land in
the last edition of his interesting publication, but no systematic
attempt has yet been made in the same direction for this country; and
although the curiosity and extent of the relics I have been enabled to
collect have far exceeded my expectations, I am fully aware how much
more can yet be accomplished. An additional number of foreign synonymes
could also no doubt be collected; though perhaps more easily by
foreigners, for Continental works which contain notices of traditional
literature are procured with difficulty in England. The following pages,
however, contain sufficient of these to exhibit the striking
similarities between rhymes prevalent over England, and others which
exist in the North of Europe.

The collection of Nursery Tales is not as extensive as could have been
wished, but the difficulty of procuring the brief traditional stories
which were current some century since, now for the most part only
recollected in obscure districts, is so great, that no apology is
necessary for the apparent deficiency of that section. The few which
have been obtained are of considerable curiosity and interest; and I
would venture to suggest to all readers of these pages the great
obligation they would confer by the communication of any additions.
Stories of this kind are undoubtedly to be obtained from oral tradition,
and perhaps some of literary importance may yet be recovered.

The compiler's best thanks are due to Captain Henry Smith for the very
interesting communication of rhymes current in the Isle of Wight; to
Mr. George Stephens for several curious fragments, and valuable
references to Swedish songs; and to many kind correspondents who have
furnished me with rhymes current in the various districts in which they
reside. It is only by a large provincial correspondence that a
collection of this kind can be rendered complete, and the minutest
information on any of our popular tales or rhymes, forwarded to the
address given below, would be most thankfully and carefully
acknowledged.

      BRIXTON HILL, SURREY;

      _April, 1849._




CONTENTS.

                                  PAGE


      NURSERY ANTIQUITIES            1

      FIRESIDE NURSERY STORIES      24

      GAME-RHYMES                  101

      ALPHABET-RHYMES              136

      RIDDLE-RHYMES                141

      NATURE-SONGS                 155

      PROVERB-RHYMES               181

      PLACES AND FAMILIES          188

      SUPERSTITION-RHYMES          206

      CUSTOM-RHYMES                230

      NURSERY-SONGS                258




POPULAR RHYMES AND NURSERY TALES.

I.--NURSERY ANTIQUITIES.


Although the names of Scott and Grimm may be enumerated amongst the
writers who have acknowledged the ethnological and philosophic value of
traditional nursery literature, it is difficult to impress on the public
mind the importance of a subject apparently in the last degree trifling
and insignificant, or to induce an opinion that the jingles and simple
narratives of a garrulous nurse can possess a worth beyond the circle of
their own immediate influence.

But they who despise the humbler sources of literary illustration must
be content to be told, and hereafter to learn, that traces of the
simplest stories and most absurd superstitions are often more effectual
in proving the affinity of different races, and determining other
literary questions, than a host of grander and more imposing monuments.
The history of fiction is continually efficacious in discussions of this
kind, and the identities of puerile sayings frequently answer a similar
purpose. Both, indeed, are of high value. The humble chap-book is found
to be descended not only from medieval romance, but also not
unfrequently from the more ancient mythology, whilst some of our
simplest nursery-rhymes are chanted to this day by the children of
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, a fact strikingly exhibiting their great
antiquity and remote origin.

The subject, however curious and interesting, is far too diffuse to be
investigated at any length in a work like the present; and, indeed, the
materials are for the most part so scattered and difficult of access,
that it would require the research of many years to accomplish the task
satisfactorily. I shall, then, content myself with indicating a few of
the most striking analogies between the rhymes of foreign countries and
those of our own, for this portion of the inquiry has been scarcely
alluded to by my predecessors. With regard to the tales, a few notices
of their antiquity will be found in the prefaces or notes to the stories
themselves, and few readers will require to be informed that
Whittington's cat realized his price in India, and that Arlotto related
the story long before the Lord Mayor was born; that Jack the
Giant-killer is founded on an Edda; or that the slipper of Cinderella
finds a parallel in the history of the celebrated Rhodope. To enter into
these discussions would be merely to repeat an oft-told tale, and I
prefer offering a few notes which will be found to possess a little more
novelty.

Of the many who must recollect the nursery jingles of their youth, how
few in number are those who have suspected their immense age, or that
they were ever more than unmeaning nonsense; far less that their
creation belongs to a period before that at which the authentic records
of our history commence. Yet there is no exaggeration in such a
statement. We find the same trifles which erewhile lulled or amused the
English infant, are current in slightly varied forms throughout the
North of Europe; we know that they have been sung in the northern
countries for centuries, and that there has been no modern outlet for
their dissemination across the German Ocean. The most natural inference
is to adopt the theory of a Teutonic origin, and thus give to every
genuine child-rhyme, found current in England and Sweden, an immense
antiquity. There is nothing improbable in the supposition, for the
preservation of the relics of primitive literature often bears an
inverse ratio to their importance. Thus, for example, a well-known
English nursery rhyme tells us,--

      There was an old man,
      And he had a calf,
                  And that's half;
      He took him out of the stall,
      And put him on the wall,
                  And that's all.

A composition apparently of little interest or curiosity; but Arwidsson,
unacquainted with the English rhyme, produces the following as current
in Sweden, Svenska Fornsanger, iii. 488, which bears far too striking a
similarity to the above to have had a different origin,--

      Gubben och gumman hade en kalf,
      Och nu aer visan half!
      Och begge sa koerde de halfven i vall,
      Och nu aer visan all!

We could not, perhaps, select a better instance of this kind of
similarity in nepial songs as current throughout the great northern
states of Europe than the pretty stanza on the ladybird. Variations of
this familiar song belong to the vernacular literature of England,
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. The version at present current in the
North of England is as follows:

      Lady-cow, lady-cow, fly thy way home,
      Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone;
      All but one that ligs under a stone,
      Fly thee home, lady-cow, ere it be gone![1]

      [Footnote 1: In Norfolk the lady-bird is called
      _burny-bee_, and the following lines are current:

      Burnie bee, burnie bee,
      Tell me when your wedding be.
      If it be to-morrow day,
      Take your wings and fly away.]

These lines are said by children, when they throw the beautiful little
insect into the air, to make it take flight. Two Scottish variations are
given by Mr. Chambers, p. 170. In Germany it is called the Virgin Mary's
chafer, _Marienwuermchen_, or the May-chafer, _Maikaeferchen_, or the
gold-bird, _Guldvogel_. In Sweden, gold-hen, gold-cow, or the Virgin
Mary's maid. In Denmark, our Lord's hen, or our Lady's hen. We may first
mention the German song translated by Taylor as frequently alluded to by
writers on this subject. The second verse is the only one preserved in
England.

      Lady-bird! lady-bird! pretty one! stay!
      Come sit on my finger, so happy and gay;
          With me shall no mischief betide thee;
      No harm would I do thee, no foeman is near,
      I only would gaze on thy beauties so dear,
          Those beautiful winglets beside thee.

      Lady-bird! lady-bird! fly away home;
      Thy house is a-fire, thy children will roam!
          List! list! to their cry and bewailing!
      The pitiless spider is weaving their doom,
      Then, lady-bird! lady-bird! fly away home!
          Hark! hark! to thy children's bewailing.

      Fly back again, back again, lady-bird dear!
      Thy neighbours will merrily welcome thee here;
          With them shall no perils attend thee!
      They'll guard thee so safely from danger or care,
      They'll gaze on thy beautiful winglets so fair,
          And comfort, and love, and befriend thee!

In Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Arnim und Brentano, 1808, iii. 82, 83, 90, we
have three German songs relating to the lady-bird. The first two of
these are here given:

_Der Guldvogel._

      Guldvogel, flieg aus,
      Flieg auf die Stangen,
      Kaesebrode langen;
      Mir eins, dir eins,
      Alle gute G'sellen eins.

"Gold-bird, get thee gone, fly to thy perch, bring cheese-cakes, one for
me, one for thee, and one for all good people."

      Maikaeferchen, Maikaeferchen, fliege weg!
      Dein Haeusgen brennt,
      Dein Muetterchen flennt,
      Dein Vater sitzt auf der Schwelle,
      Flieg in Himmel aus der Hoelle.

"May-bird, May-bird, fly away. Thy house burns, thy mother weeps, thy
father stays at his threshold, fly from hell into heaven!"--The third is
not so similar to our version. Another German one is given in Kuhn und
Schwark, Norddeutsche Sagen, 1848, p. 375:

      Maikaeferchen, fliege,
      Dein Vater ist im Kriege,
      Dein Mutter ist in Pommerland,
      Pommerland ist abgebrannt!
      Maikaeferchen, fliege.

"May-bird, fly. Thy father is in the war, thy mother is in Pomerania,
Pomerania is burnt! May-bird, fly."--See, also, Erk und Irmer, Die
Deutschen Volkslieder, Berlin, 1839, iv. 7, Das Maikaeferlied. For the
two pretty Swedish songs which follow I am indebted to the MS. of Mr.
Stephens. The first is common in the southern parts of that country, the
other in the northern.

      Guld-hoena, guld-ko!
      Flyg oester, flyg vester,
      Dit du flyger der bor din aelskade!

"Gold-hen, gold-cow! fly east, fly west, you will fly where your
sweetheart is."

      Jungfru Marias Nyckelpiga!
      Flyg oester, flyg vester,
      Flyg dit der min kaeresta bor![2]

      [Footnote 2: This is a very remarkable
      coincidence with an English rhyme:

      Fly, lady-bird, fly!
        North, south, east, or west;
      Fly to the pretty girl
        That I love best.]

"Fly, our holy Virgin's bower-maid! fly east, fly west, fly where my
loved-one dwelleth." In Denmark they sing (Thiele, iii. 134):

      Fly, fly, our Lord's own hen!
      To-morrow the weather fair will be,
      And eke the next day too.[3]

      [Footnote 3: The lady-bird, observes Mr.
      Chambers, is always connected with fine weather
      in Germany and the north.]

Accumulative tales are of very high antiquity. The original of "the
House that Jack Built" is well known to be an old Hebrew hymn in Sepher
Haggadah. It is also found in Danish, but in a somewhat shorter form;
(See Thiele, Danske Folkesagn, II. iii. 146, _Der har du det Huus som
Jacob bygde_;) and the English version is probably very old, as may be
inferred from the mention of "the priest all shaven and shorn." A
version of the old woman and her sixpence occurs in the same collection,
II. iv. 161, _Konen och Grisen Fick_, the old wife and her piggy
Fick,--"There was once upon a time an old woman who had a little pig
hight Fick, who would never go home late in the evening. So the old
woman said to her stick:

      'Stick, beat Fick, I say!
      Piggie will not go home to-day!'"

This chant-tale is also common in Sweden. One copy has been printed by
N. Lilja in his Violen en Samling Jullekar, Barnsanger och Sagor, i. 20,
_Gossen och Geten Naeppa_, the boy and the goat Neppa,--"There was once a
yeoman who had a goat called Neppa, but Neppa would never go home from
the field. The yeoman was therefore forced to promise his daughter in
marriage to whoever could get Neppa home. Many tried their fortune in
vain, but at last a sharp boy offered to ward the goat. All the next day
he followed Neppa, and when evening came, he said, 'Now will we
homeward go?' but Neppa answered, 'Pluck me a tuft or so,'" &c. The
story is conducted in an exactly similar manner in which the
_denouement_ is brought about in the English tale.[4]

      [Footnote 4: Two other variations occur in
      Arwidsson, Svenska Fornsanger, 1842, iii. 387-8,
      and Mr. Stephens tells me he has a MS. Swedish
      copy entitled the Schoolboy and the Birch. It is
      also well known in Alsace, and is printed in that
      dialect in Stoeber's Elsassisches Volksbuechlein,
      1842, pp. 93-5. Compare, also, Kuhn und Schwark,
      Norddeutsche Sagen, Maerchen und Gebraeuche, 1848,
      p. 358, "Die fra, dos hippel un dos hindel."]

The well-known song of "There was a lady lov'd a swine," is found in an
unpublished play of the time of Charles I. in the Bodleian Library, MS.
Bodl. 30:

      There was a lady lov'd a hogge;
        Hony, quoth shee,
      Woo't thou lie with me to-night?
        Ugh, quoth hee.

A similar song is current in Sweden, as we learn from Arwidsson, Svenska
Fornsanger, iii. 482, who gives a version in which an old woman, who had
no children, took a little foal, which she called Longshanks, and rocked
and nursed it as if it had been her own child:[5]

      Gumman ville vagga
        Och inga barn hade hon;
            Da tog hon in
            Foelungen sin,
        Och lade den i vaggan sin.
        Vyssa, vyssa, langskanken min,
        Langa ben bar du;
        Lefver du till sommaren,
        Blir du lik far din.

      [Footnote 5: It is still more similar to a pretty
      little song in Chambers, p. 188, commencing,
      "There was a miller's dochter."]

Another paradoxical song-tale, respecting the old woman who went to
market, and had her petticoats cut off at her knees "by a pedlar whose
name was Stout," is found in some shape or other in most countries in
Europe. A Norwegian version is given by Asbjoernsen og Moe, Norske
Folkeeventyr, 1843, and, if I recollect rightly, it is also found in
Grimm.

The riddle-rhyme of "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" is, in one form or
other, a favorite throughout Europe. A curious Danish version is given
by Thiele, iii. 148:

      Lille Trille
      Laae paa Hylde;
      Lille Trille
      Faldt ned af Hylde.
      Ingen Mand
      I hele Land
      Lille Trille curere kan.

Which may be thus translated:

          Little Trille
          Lay on a shelf:
          Little Trille
          Thence pitch'd himself:
          Not all the men
          In our land, I ken,
          Can put Little Trille right again.

And Mr. Stephens has preserved two copies in his MS. Swedish
collections. The first is from the province of Upland:

      Thille Lille
        Satt pa take';
      Thille Lille
        Trilla' ner;
      Ingen laekare i hela verlden
      Thille Lille laga kan.

          Thille Lille
            On the roof-tree sat;
          Thille Lille
            Down fell flat;
          Never a leech the world can show
          That Thille Lille can heal, I trow.

Another from the province of Smaland:

      Lille Bulle
      Trilla' ner a skulle;
      Ingen man i detta lan'
      Lille Bulle laga kan.

          Down on the shed
          Lille Bulle rolled;
          Never a man in all this land
          Lille Bulle helpen can.

It will now only be necessary to refer to the similarities pointed out
in other parts of this work, to convince the reader that, at all events,
a very fair case is made out for the truth of the positions we have
contended for, if, indeed, sufficient evidence of their absolute truth
is not adduced. They who are accustomed to researches of this kind, are
too well aware of the facility with which the most plausible theories
are frequently nullified by subsequent discovery; but there appears in
the present case to be numerous conditions insoluble by any other
supposition than that of a common origin, and we are therefore fully
justified in adopting it as proved.

Turning to the nursery rhymes of our own country, it will tend
materially to strengthen the results to which we have arrived, if we
succeed in proving their antiquity in this island. We shall be enabled
to do so satisfactorily, and to show that they are not the modern
nonsense some folks may pronounce them to be. They illustrate the
history and manners of the people for centuries. Here, for instance, is
a relic in the form of a nursery rhyme, but in reality part of a
political song, referring to the rebellious times of Richard the
Second.[6]

      My father he died, I cannot tell how,
      But he left me six horses to drive out my plough!
      With a wimmy lo! wommy lo! _Jack Straw, blazey-boys!_
      Wimmy lo! wommy lo! wob, wob, wob!

      [Footnote 6: I am here, and in a few other cases,
      quoting from myself. It may be necessary to say
      so, for my former collections on this subject
      have been appropriated--"convey, the wise it
      call"--in a work by a learned Doctor, the preface
      to which is an amusing instance of plagiarism.]

An infant of the nineteenth century recalling our recollection to Jack
Straw and his "blazey-boys!" Far better this than teaching history with
notes "suited to the capacity of the youngest." Another refers to Joanna
of Castile, who visited the court of Henry the Seventh in 1506:

      I had a little nut-tree, nothing would it bear
      But a golden nutmeg and a silver pear;
      The King of Spain's daughter came to visit me,
      And all for the sake of my little nut-tree.

We have distinct evidence that the well-known rhyme,[7]

      The King of France went up the hill,
        With twenty thousand men:
      The King of France came down the hill,
        And ne'er went up again--

was composed before 1588, It occurs in an old tract called Pigges
Corantoe, 1642, where it is entitled "Old Tarlton's Song," referring to
Tarlton the jester, who died in 1588. The following one belongs to the
seventeenth century:

      As I was going by Charing Cross,
      I saw a black man upon a black horse;
      They told me it was King Charles the First;
      Oh dear, my heart was ready to burst!

      [Footnote 7: An early variation occurs in MS.
      Sloane 1489:

      The king of France, and four thousand men,
      They drew their swords, and put them up again.]

Political nursery-rhymes, or rather political rhymes of a jingling
character, which, losing their original application, are preserved only
in the nursery, were probably common in the seventeenth century. The two
just quoted have evidently an historical application. The manuscript
miscellanies of the time of James I. and Charles I. contain several
copies of literal rhymes not very unlike "A, B, C, tumble-down D." In
the reign of Charles II. political pasquinades constantly partook of
the genuine nursery character. We may select the following example, of
course put into the mouth of that sovereign, preserved in MS. Douce 357,
f. 124, in the Bodleian Library:

      See-saw, sack-a-day;
      Monmouth is a pretie boy,
        Richmond is another,
      Grafton is my onely joy,
      And why should I these three destroy
        To please a pious brother?

"What is the rhyme for porringer?" was written on occasion of the
marriage of Mary, the daughter of James Duke of York, afterwards James
II., with the young Prince of Orange: and the following alludes to
William III. and George Prince of Denmark:

      William and Mary, George and Anne,
      Four such children had never a man:
      They put their father to flight and shame,
      And call'd their brother a shocking bad name.

Another nursery song on King William is not yet obsolete, but its
application is not generally known. My authority is the title of it in
MS. Harl. 7316:

      As I walk'd by myself,
      And talked to myself,
        Myself said unto me,
      Look to thyself,
      Take care of thyself,
        For nobody cares for thee.

      I answer'd myself,
      And said to myself
        In the self-same repartee,
      Look to thyself,
      Or not look to thyself,
        The self-same thing will be.

To this class of rhymes I may add the following on Dr. Sacheverel,
which was obtained from oral tradition:

      Doctor Sacheverel
      Did very well,
      But Jacky Dawbin
      Gave him a warning.

When there are no allusions to guide us, it is only by accident that we
can hope to test the history and antiquity of these kind of scraps, but
we have no doubt whatever that many of them are centuries old. The
following has been traced to the time of Henry VI., a singular doggerel,
the joke of which consists in saying it so quickly that it cannot be
told whether it is English or gibberish:

      In fir tar is,
      In oak none is,
      In mud eel is,
      In clay none is,
      Goat eat ivy,
      Mare eat oats.

"Multiplication is vexation," a painful reality to schoolboys, was found
a few years ago in a manuscript dated 1570; and the memorial lines,
"Thirty days hath September," occur in the Return from Parnassus, an old
play printed in 1606. Our own reminiscences of such matters, and those
of Shakespeare, may thus have been identical! "To market, to market, to
buy a plum-bun," is partially quoted in Florio's New World of Words,
1611, in v. 'Abomba.' The old song of the "Carrion Crow sat on an Oak,"
was discovered by me in MS. Sloane 1489, of the time of Charles I., but
under a different form:

      Hic, hoc, the carrion crow,
      For I have shot something too low:
      I have quite missed my mark,
      And shot the poor sow to the heart;
      Wife, bring treacle in a spoon,
      Or else the poor sow's heart will down.

"Sing a song of sixpence" is quoted by Beaumont and Fletcher. "Buz,
quoth the blue fly," which is printed in the nursery halfpenny books,
belongs to Ben Jonson's Masque of Oberon; the old ditty of "Three Blind
Mice" is found in the curious music book entitled Deuteromelia, or the
Second Part of Musicke's Melodie, 1609; and the song, "When I was a
little girl, I wash'd my mammy's dishes," is given by Aubrey in MS.
Lansd. 231. "A swarm of bees in May," is quoted by Miege, 1687. And so
on of others, fragments of old catches and popular songs being
constantly traced in the apparently unmeaning rhymes of the nursery.

Most of us have heard in time past the school address to a story-teller:

      Liar, liar, lick dish,
      Turn about the candlestick.

Not very important lines, one would imagine, but they explain a passage
in Chettle's play of the Tragedy of Hoffman, or a Revenge for a Father,
4to. Lond, 1631, which would be partially inexplicable without such
assistance:

      _Lor._ By heaven! it seemes hee did, but all was vaine;
             The flinty rockes had cut his tender scull,
             And the rough water wash't away his braine.
      _Luc._ Lyer, lyer, licke dish!

The intention of the last speaker is sufficiently intelligible, but a
future editor, anxious to investigate his author minutely, might search
in vain for an explanation of _licke dish_. Another instance[8] of the
antiquity of children's rhymes I met with lately at Stratford-on-Avon,
in a MS. of the seventeenth century, in the collection of the late
Captain James Saunders, where, amongst common-place memoranda on more
serious subjects, written about the year 1630, occurred a version of
one of our most favorite nursery songs:

      I had a little bonny nagg,
        His name was Dapple Gray;
      And he would bring me to an ale-house
        A mile out of my way.

      [Footnote 8: A dance called _Hey, diddle,
      diddle_, is mentioned in the play of _King
      Cambises_, written about 1561, and the several
      rhymes commencing with the words may have been
      original adaptations to that dance-tune.]

"Three children sliding on the ice" is founded on a metrical tale
published at the end of a translation of Ovid de Arte Amandi, 1662.[9]
The lines,

      There was an old woman
        Liv'd under a hill,
      And if she ben't gone,
        She lives there still--

      [Footnote 9: See the whole poem in my Nursery
      Rhymes of England, ed. 1842, p. 19.]

form part of an old catch, printed in the Academy of Complements, ed.
1714, p. 108. The same volume (p. 140) contains the original words to
another catch, which has been corrupted in its passage to the nursery:

      There was an old man had three sons,
      Had three sons, had three sons;
      There was an old man had three sons,
          Jeffery, James, and Jack.
      Jeffery was hang'd and James was drown'd,
      And Jack was lost, that he could not be found,
      And the old man fell into a swoon,
          For want of a cup of sack!

It is not improbable that Shakespeare, who has alluded so much and so
intricately to the vernacular rural literature of his day, has more
notices of nursery-rhymes and tales than research has hitherto elicited.
I am only acquainted with one reference to the former,