A History of Nursery Rhymes

"One very dark night, when the goblins' light Was as long and as white as a feather, A fairy spirit bade me stray Amongst the gorse and heather. The pixies' glee enamoured me, T...

The annual calendar of dates when certain of the pastimes and songs of our street children become fashionable is an uncertain one, yet games have their seasons most wonderfully...

"The long Arctic day was beautiful in itself, though one soon got tired of it. But when that day vanished and the long Polar night began, then began the kingdom of beauty, then...

"Come, Jack, let's drink a pot of ale, And I shall tell thee such a tale Will make thine ears to ring. My coin is spent, my time is lost, And I this only fruit can boast, That o...

"A frog, who would a-wooing go. Hey, oh! says Rowly. Whether his mother would let him or no, With a Rowly Powly Gammon and Spinach, Hey, oh! says Anthony Rowly."

Sports, games, and amusements were unknown until a late day in Jewish history. Within the walls of Jerusalem, or indeed throughout the whole length of Palestine, no theatre, cir...

"Oh, slumber, my darling, thy sire is a knight; Thy mother a lady so lovely and bright. The hills and the dales and the towers which you see, They all shall belong, my dear baby...

"There was a little man and he woo'd a little maid, And he said, 'Little maid, will you wed--wed--wed? I have little more to say than will you--Yea or Nay? For the least said is...

I. GAMES--Whipping-tops, Marbles, etc.--"I am good at Scourging of my Toppe," date 15--(?)--Dice and Pitch-and-Toss--"Dab a Prin in my Lottery Book"--"A' the Birds of the Air"--...

"Cows and horses walk on four legs, Little children walk on two legs; Fishes swim in water clear, Birds fly up into the air. One, two, three, four, five, Catching fishes all ali...

"O goddess, if I were to proceed retracing them from their first origin, and thou hadst leisure to hear the records of our labours before (the end), the Evening Star would lull...

Riddle-making is not left alone by the purveyors of nursery yarns, though belonging to the mythologic state of thought. The Hindu calls the sun seven-horsed; so the German riddl...

Scientists tell us many marvellous tales, none the less true because marvellous, about the prehistoric past. Like the owl in the preface, they are not discouraged because the st...

"Ride a cock-horse to _Banbury Cross_,[K] To see a _fair_[L] lady upon a white horse; _Bells_[M] on her fingers and bells on her toes, She will have music wherever she goes,"

"When a twister twisting twists him a twist, For twisting a twist three twists he must twist; But if one of the twists untwists from the twist, The twist untwisting untwists all...

"As I went up the Brandy Hill I met my father wi' gude will; He had jewels, he had rings, He had many braw things, He'd a cat-and-nine-tails, He'd a hammer wantin' nails. Up Joc...

"Sleep, O son, sleep, Thy mother sings to her firstborn; Sleep, O boy, sleep, Thy father cries out to his little child. Thousands of praises we sing to thee, A thousand thousand...

"There was a maid came out of Kent, Dangerous be, dangerous be; There was a maid came out of Kent, Fayre, propre, small, and gent As ever upon the ground went, For so should it...

The old saying of "A cat may look at the queen" is thus expressed in a dialogue between a ward nurse of Elizabeth's time and a truant tom on its return to the nursery.

In the preceding chapter it was noted how the wondrous boy-Tages was believed in by the ancients. "Jack and the Beanstalk," our modern tale, though adapted to the present age, i...

II. Modern types of early man--Sign-language of people living on the globe to-day--The custom of the UVINZA grandees--The "good-morning" of the Walunga tribe--Signs of hospitali...

Known to the rustics of England, France, and Italy since the days of the great Charlemagne, has a peculiar history. Like many other rhymes of yore it is fast dying out of memory...