Originally
Published in the Winter 2000-2001 . . .
Oh, Pillykin, Willykin, Winky Wee!
How
does the President take his tea?
He takes it with melons, he takes it with milk,
He takes it with syrup and sassafras silk;
He takes it without and he takes it within,
Oh, Pinky-doodle and Jollapin!
An
early American nursery rhyme
Nursery
rhymes have been with us ever since there were babies
to lull and older children to entertain. As folk
literature, they often mask religious, political
and sexual meanings. For instance, it has been theorized
that the bags of wool given in Bah, Bah, Black
Sheep represent monies paid to kings and churches.
There are also those who say Jack and Jill
were going up the hill for more than just water.
Most verses with which we are familiar come from
Britain. Americans call them "Mother Goose rhymes"
while the British are more apt to call them simply
"melodies," "songs" or "jingles." This, and the
fact that a real-life Mrs. Goose lived in Boston
as early as 1692, has convinced some that the beloved
character is actually American. But irrefutable
proof of Mother Goose as a teller of children's
tales can be traced back at least to the year 1650,
where she is mentioned by that name in a French
volume called La Muse Historique. Its author
was probably making a reference to "Goose Footed
Bertha," the legendary French storyteller who spun
yarns, literally, as she worked incessantly at a
spinning wheel. Her foot had been flattened by years
at the treadle. The origins of a Goose Footed Bertha
go as far back as 783. Bertha, the mother of King
Charlemagne and a patroness of children, was known
as Queen Goose Foot because of a malformation. So
certainly the character of Mother Goose is an Old
World invention. She migrated to America on European
ships and adapted herself to the religious, political
and sexual climate of a new land.
Explorers
of the 'New World' found an established native culture.
Supposedly, a pilgrim from the Mayflower
saw Indian mothers rocking their babies in cradles
slung from trees, and was inspired to write this
rhyme:
Hush
a bye Baby
On the Tree Top
When the Wind blows
The Cradle will rock;
When the Bough breaks
The Cradle will fall,
Down tumbles Baby,
Cradle and all.
The
women of the Mayflower came ashore on Monday,
November 13, 1620 (two days after the men). The
first thing they did was wash clothing made filthy
from sixty-eight days at sea. This established an
orderly ritual reflected by the following rhyme:
Wash
on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Bake on Wednesday,
Brew on Thursday,
Churn on Friday,
Mend on Saturday,
Go to meeting on Sunday.
On
April 5, 1665, Elizabeth Foster was born in the
coastal settlement of Charleston. At age 27, she
married Isaac Goose of Boston and became stepmother
to ten children. She herself bore six more. One
daughter wed a man named Thomas Fleet and gave Elizabeth
Goose seven grandchildren. She lulled them with
songs remembered from her Charleston childhood.
Thomas Fleet allegedly published these lullabies
in 1719 under the title: Songs for the Nursery,
or Mother Goose's Melodies. No known copy of
this book exists, and it is a mystery whether it
was ever printed at all. Thomas Fleet did publish
a New-England Primer in 1737, but this work
made no mention of any "Mother Goose" rhymes.
Elizabeth
Goose died in late 1756 or early 1757, and was reputedly
put to rest in Boston's Old Granary Burying Ground.
Many still believe she was the true "Mother Goose,"
and a tombstone there attracts visitors from all
over the world. The name on the stone is Mary, and
it is probably for Isaac Goose's previous wife,
but this does not dissuade the faithful.
The passing of Elizabeth Goose aside, the spirit
of the folk rhyme survived, and went on to rally
the fight for American independence. A refrain still
echoing from that time is:
Yankee
Doodle went to town,
Riding on a pony.
Stuck a feather in his hat,
And called it macaroni.
"Macaroni"
does not refer to pasta, but to something frivolous
worn by a fop, or a dandy. In fact, the term
"Yankee Doodle Dandy" was originally derisive. The
popular theory is that Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, an
English surgeon and wit, coined it in 1775 to deride
the fantastically uniformed Colonial troops. "Doodle"
is said to have meant a dim-witted but happy fellow,
and "Yankee" was a word that referred to New-Englanders.
It is of unclear origin, but a British officer in
General Burgoyne's Revolutionary War army wrote:
"It
is derived from a Cherokee word, 'eankke,' which
signifies coward and slave. This epithet, 'Yankee,'
was bestowed upon the residents of New England by
Virginians for not assisting them with the war with
the Cherokees."
British
soldiers sang "Yankee Doodle" tunes to poke fun
at upstart Colonists. When the tide of the war began
to turn, however, American troops took up the jingle
as their own, and the singing of it became a rousing
cry that soon made the British regret ever creating
it. Several variations exist, but to Americans the
classic full version will always be:
Father
and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Goodin,
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty puddin'.
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
And there was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
And all the men and boys around,
I guess there was a million.
Yankee Doodle went to town,
Riding on a pony.
Stuck a feather in his hat,
And called it macaroni.
In
1786, ten years after the Revolutionary War, a Massachusetts
bookseller named Isaiah Thomas reprinted a book
of nursery rhymes originally sold in England. London
publisher John Newbery had released Mother Goose's
Melody: or Sonnets for the Cradle sometime between
1760 and 1766. That Thomas chose to reprint the
collection is notable - his wife was a granddaughter
of the Fleets, and thus the great granddaughter
of Elizabeth Goose.
Most
nursery rhymes known in America have their origins
in England. But some were changed by their long
journey over the Atlantic. On rainy days, English
children chant:
It's
raining, it's raining,
There's pepper in the box,
And all the little ladies
Are holding up their frocks.
While
in America the words are something more like:
It's
raining, it's pouring,
The old man is snoring;
He got into bed
And bumped his head
And couldn't get up in the morning.
"Counting
out" rhymes are used to select the participants
for certain kinds of games. In England, one child
will point at the others in turn and say:
One,
two, three, four, five, six, seven.
All good children go to heaven,
Penny on the water,
Two pence on the sea,
Three pence on the railway,
Out goes she.
An
American version of the same is:
One,
two, three, four, five, six, seven.
All good children go to heaven,
Some fly east,
Some fly west,
Some fly over the cuckoo's nest.
This
"counting out" rhyme was printed in 1814 by Jesse
Cochran of Windsor, Vermont:
Intery,
Mintery, cutery corn,
Apple seed and briar thorn:
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Five Geese in a flock,
Sit and sing by a spring,
O-U-T and in again.
Many
traditional folk rhymes are based on holidays. America's
own "Groundhog's Day" shadow myth derives from much
earlier beliefs about the second of February. By
some religious traditions, this is the day the altar
candles are blessed:
If
Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight;
But if it be dark with clouds and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again.
The
July 4th Independence Day is a uniquely
American celebration. It is honored in this country
proverb, used by farmers to see if they have raised
a good corn crop:
Knee
high
By the Fourth of July
Arguably
the most famous nursery rhyme attributed to an American
was written by Sarah Josepha Hale of Boston early
in the year 1830:
Mary
had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day,
That was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play,
To see a lamb in school.
And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear.
Why does the lamb love Mary so?
The eager children cry;
Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,
The teacher did reply.
In
the second half of the nineteenth century, the publishing
houses of Boston, New York and Philadelphia responded
to a sudden national nostalgia for Mother Goose
rhymes with cheaply produced volumes of traditional
verse. Books were printed on linen for the first
time. These "paper-backs" sold well, and were perfect
for children, who could read them over and over
again without the fear of ruining an expensive literary
investment.
And
Americans continued to add their own original verses.
In 1864, Songwriter Septimus Winter penned this
whimsical rhyme for publication:
Oh
where, oh where has my little dog gone?
Oh where, oh where can he be?
With his ears cut short and his tail cut long,
Oh where, oh where is he?
Mr.
Winter also wrote this now controversial piece for
the minstrel shows of the 1860s:
Ten
little Injuns standin' in a line,
One toddled home and then there were nine;
Nine little Injuns swingin' on a gate,
One tumbled off and then there were eight.
One little, two little, three little, four little,
five little Injun boys,
Six little, seven little, eight little, nine little,
ten little Injun boys.
Eight little Injuns gayest under heav'n.
One went to sleep and then there were seven;
Seven little Injuns cuttin' up their tricks,
One broke his neck and then there were six.
Six little Injuns all alive,
One kicked the bucket and then there were five;
Five little Injuns on a cellar door,
One tumbled in and then there were four.
Four little Injuns up on a spree,
One got fuddled and then there were three;
Three little Injuns out on a canoe,
One tumbled overboard and then there were two.
Two little Injuns foolin' with a gun,
One shot t'other and then there was one;
One little Injun livin' all alone,
He got married and then there were none.
This
was a case of reverse influence, as both English
lyricist Frank Green and English mystery writer
Agatha Christie were inspired by Winter's American
"Injun" ditty.
When
Benjamin Franklin first included a version of the
next rhyme in his Poor Richard's Almanack,
America and England were on opposite sides of a
struggle and an ocean:
For
want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the rider was lost
For want of a rider the battle was lost
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
During
World War II, this verse was framed and hung on
the wall of the Anglo-American Supply Headquarters
in London, England. The allied forces, in effect,
saved the kingdom by heeding the warning inherent
to the rhyme. Production lines ran non-stop to make
sure the shoe was never without a nail, the horse
never without a shoe, the rider never without a
horse, and the battle never without a rider. Translated
to ammunition, tanks, and troops, this made for
a war-winning effort.
Mother Goose may have come from Europe on the Mayflower,
but in this instance she was carried back again
on a Liberty supply ship.
No,
no, my melodies will never die,
While nurses sing and babies cry.
Only
True Mother Goose Melodies, c. 1843
Mother Goose's headstone in Boston's Old
Granary Burying Ground? Possibly ~ |
|
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Resource Sources:
The
Annotated Mother Goose, copyright© MCMLXII
by William and Cecil Baring-Gould, Bramhall House,
New York. NY, c1970. Includes historical woodcuts,
and illustrations by Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane
and Randolph Caldecott.
Popular
Nursery Rhymes, copyright© 1981 by Jennifer
Mulherin, Grosset & Dunlap, New York, NY,
1983. Includes historical woodcuts, illustrations
from Mother Goose's Melody, 1791, and by
Charles Robinson and Charles Folkard.
The
Mother Goose Society website at http://www.librarysupport.net/mothergoosesociety/
