Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes

The tasks that are here imposed on the man are set also in the form of a boast in a nursery song, in which they have so entirely lost their meaning as to represent a string of impossibilities.

My father left me three acres of land,Sing sing, sing sing,My father left me three acres of land,Sing holly, go whistle and sing.I ploughed it with a ram's horn,And sowed it with one pepper corn.I harrowed it with a bramble bush,And reaped it with a little pen knife.I got the mice to carry it to the mill,And thrashed it with a goose's quill.I got the cat to carry it to the mill,The miller swore he would have her paw,And the cat she swore she would scratch his face.(N. & Q., VII. 8.)

Another nursery piece is recorded by Halliwell which, in simple form relates concerning Billy my son the sequence of events which underlies the famous romantic ballad of Lord Randal.27 The story is current also in Scotland relating to The Croodin Doo (1870, p. 51); it was told also some eighty years ago in Lincolnshire, of King Henry my son (N. & Q., 8, VI, 427). The romantic ballad in five verses, as told of Lairde Rowlande, relates how he came from the woods weary with hunting and expecting death. He had been at his true love's, where he ate of the food which poisoned his warden and his dogs. In the nursery version the tragedy is told in the following simple form: —

Where have you been to-day, Billy my son?Where have you been to-day, my only man? —I've been a wooing, mother; make my bed soon,For I'm sick at heart, and fain would lie down.What have you ate to-day, Billy my son?What have you ate to-day, my only man? —I've eat eel pie, mother; make my bed soon,For I am sick at heart, and shall die before noon.(1849, p. 259.)

Other nursery pieces deal with Tommy Linn, the Tam Linn of romance, who is the hero of many famous romantic ballads. The name of Tam Linn goes some way back in history. For the Tayl of young Tamlene, according to Vedderburn's Complaint of Scotland, of 1549, was told among a company of shepherds, and the name appears also as that of a dance, A Ballett of Thomalyn, as far back as 1558.28

According to the romantic ballads, Tam Linn fell under the influence of the fairies through sleeping under an apple tree, and they threatened to take him back as their own on Hallowe'en, when they rode abroad once in seven years and had the right to claim their due. Tam Linn told the woman who loved him that she must hold him fast, whatever shape he assumed owing to the enchantment of the witches, and that she must cast him into water as soon as he assumed the shape of a gled. He would then be restored to human form.

Tam Linn of romance figures in nursery lore as Tommy Linn. His exploits were printed by Halliwell in one of the numerous versions that are current in the north. In these pieces Tommy Linn has only this in common with Tam Linn of romance, that he too is ready with a suggestion whatever mishap befalls.

Tommy Linn is a Scotchman born,His head is bald and his beard is shorn;He has a cap made of a hare skin,An alderman is Tommy Linn.Tommy Linn has no boots to put on,But two calves' skins and the hair it was on.They are open at the side and the water goes in,Unwholesome boots, says Tommy Linn.Tommy Linn had no bridle to put on,But two mouse's tails that he put on.Tommy Linn had no saddle to put on,But two urchins' skins and them he put on.Tommy Linn's daughter sat on the stair,O dear father, gin I be not fair?The stairs they broke and she fell in,You're fair enough now, says Tommy Linn.Tommy Linn had no watch to put on,So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one;He caught a cricket and put it within,It's my own ticker, says Tommy Linn.Tommy Linn, his wife, and wife's mother,They all fell into the fire together;Oh, said the topmost, I've got a hot skin,It's hotter below, says Tommy Linn.(1849, p. 271.)

Several short nursery rhymes are taken from this, or other versions of this poem. Among the pieces printed by Chambers we read —

Tam o' the Lin and his bairns,Fell i' the fire in others' arms!Oh, quo' the bunemost, I ha'e a hot skin!!It's hotter below, quo' Tam o' the Lin!!!(1870, p. 33.)

Sir Walter Scott in Redgauntlet cites a catch on Sir Thom o' Lyne.

In some nursery collections the adventures of Tommy Lin, the Scotchman, are appropriated to Bryan O'Lin, the Irishman.

Bryan O'Lin had no watch to put on,So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one:He caught a cricket and put it within,And called it a ticker, did Bryan O'Lin.Bryan O'Lin had no breeches to wear,So he got a sheepskin to make him a pair:With the skinny side out and the woolly side in,Oh! how nice and warm, cried Bryan O'Lin.(1842, p. 212.)

Many nursery rhymes which dwell on cats are formed on the model of these verses. A rhyme that comes from America is as follows: —

Kit and Kitterit and Kitterit's mother,All went over the bridge together.The bridge broke down, they all fell in,"Good luck to you," says Tom Bolin.

A modern collection of rhymes (1873, p. 136) gives this as follows: —

The two grey cats and the grey kits' mother,All went over the bridge together;The bridge broke down, they all fell in,May the rats go with you, sings Tom Bowlin.

The association of cats with Tommy Linn reappears in the rhyme in which Tommy, who in the romantic ballad begged immersion for himself, practised immersion on a cat. Perhaps the cat was figured as a witch, who, being suspected, was cast into the water in order to prove her witchcraft.

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1

Letters of Joseph Ritson, edited by his Nephew, 1833. 27 April, 1781.

2

Welsh, Ch., A Publisher of the Last Century, 1885, p. 272.

3

Appleton, Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1887: Fleet, Thomas.

4

Whitmore, W. H., The original Mother Goose's Melody, 1892, p. 40 ff.

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.

8

Whitmore, loc. cit., p. 6.

9

Eachard, Observations, etc., 1671, cited. Halliwell, Popular Rhymes, 1849, p. 137.

10

Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, 1893, p. 633.

11

Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1866, p. 189.

12

Cited Murray's Dictionary: Jack.

13

Forster, J., Life of Goldsmith, II, p. 71.

14

Chappell, loc. cit., p. 770.

15

Roxburgh Collection of Ballads, IV, p. 355.

16

Forster, Life of Goldsmith, II, 122.

17

Chappell, loc. cit., p. 569.

18

Chappell, loc. cit., p. 315.

19

Warton, History of English Poetry, 1840, III, 360.

20

Chappell, loc. cit., p. 88.

21

Sharpe, Ch. K., Ballad Book, 1824, p. 87.

22

Chappell, loc. cit., p. 561.

23

Roxburgh Collection, IV, 433.

24

Child, F. G., English and Scottish Popular Ballads 1894.

25

Smith, G., The Transition Period, 1897, p. 180, in Saintsbury, Periods of European Literature.

26

Child, loc. cit., I, 6 ff.

27

Ibid., I, 157: Lord Randal.

28

Ibid., I, 256: Tamlene.