The Nursery Rhymes of England

My father he died, but I can't tell you how, He left me six horses to drive in my plough: With my wing wang waddle oh, Jack sing saddle oh, Blowsey boys bubble oh, Under the broom.

When he asked her to dance, she again Said "Yes!" with her first smiling glance; And all the night long, my young lord With none but fair Catskin would dance.

[The "foles of Gotham" are mentioned as early as the fifteenth century in the 'Townley Mysteries;' and, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, Dr. Andrew Borde made a col...

It's once I courted as pretty a lass, As ever your eyes did see; But now she's come to such a pass, She never will do for me. She invited me to her own house, Where oft I'd been...

Higgledy piggledy Here we lie, Pick'd and pluck'd, And put in a pie. My first is snapping, snarling, growling, My second's industrious, romping, and prowling. Higgledy piggledy...

Cuckoo, Cuckoo, What do you do? In April I open my bill; In May I sing night and day; In June I change my tune; In July Away I fly; In August Away I must.

[A passes by under the arch, followed by the whole string of children, the last of whom is taken captive by B and C. The verses are repeated, until all are taken.]

Now we dance looby, looby, looby, Shake your right hand a little, Shake your left hand a little, Shake your right foot a little, Shake your left foot a little, And turn you roun...

Produced by David Edwards, Lesley Halamek and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Th...

"She went a little further, and she met a fire. So she said, 'Fire! fire! burn stick; stick won't beat dog; dog won't bite pig,' (_and so forth, always repeating the foregoing w...

Colons have been used extensively throughout the book, where, perhaps a semi-colon would be used today. The colons have been retained, as they seem to suggest a subtle nuance of...