Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes

There lived a Puddy in a well, Cuddy alone and I.[21 - Sharpe, Ch. K., Ballad Book, 1824, p. 87.]

In the nursery collection of c. 1783 the song begins: —

There was a frog liv'd in a well, Kitty alone, Kitty alone,
There was a frog liv'd in a well.
There was a frog liv'd in a well, Kitty alone and I.
And a farce mouse in a mill,
Cock me cary, Kitty alone, Kitty alone and I.

    (c. 1783, p. 4.)
The origin and meaning of this burden remains obscure.

The antiquity and the wide popularity of these verses are further shown by a song written in imitation of it, called A Ditty on a High Amore at St. James, and set to a popular tune, which dates from before 1714. It is in verse, and begins: —

Great Lord Frog and Lady Mouse, Crackledom hee, crackledom ho,
Dwelling near St. James' house, Cocki mi chari chi;
Rode to make his court one day,
In the merry month of May,
When the sun shone bright and gay, twiddle come, tweedle dee.[22 - Chappell, loc. cit., p. 561.]

In the accepted nursery version the song begins: —

A frog he would a wooing ride, heigho, says Rowley,
Whether his mother would let him or no,
With a roly-poly, gammon and spinach,
Heigho, says Anthony Rowley.

This burden is said by a correspondent of Notes and Queries to have been first inserted in the old song as a burden by Liston. His song, entitled The Love-sick Frog, with an original tune by C. E. H., Esq. (perhaps Charles Edward Horn), and an accompaniment by Thomas Cook, was published by Goulding & Co., Soho Square, in the early part of the nineteenth century (N. & Q., I, 458). The burden has been traced back to the jeu d'esprit of 1809 on the installation of Lord Grenville as Chancellor of Oxford, which another correspondent quotes from memory: —

Mister Chinnery then an M. A. of great parts,
Sang the praises of Chancellor Grenville.
Oh! He pleased all the ladies and tickled their hearts,
But then we all know he's a Master of Arts.
With a rowly, powly, gammon and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Rowley.

    (N. & Q., 11, 27.)
Another variation of the song of The Frog and the Mouse of about 1800 begins: —

There was a frog lived in a well, heigho, crowdie!
And a merry mouse in a mill, with a howdie, crowdie, etc.

    (N. & Q., 11, 110.)
This expression, heigho, crowdie, contains a call to the crowd to strike up. The crowd is the oldest kind of British fiddle, which had no neck and only three strings. It is mentioned as a British instrument already by the low Latin poet Fortunatus towards the close of the sixth century: "Chrotta Britannia canat." The instrument is well known to this day in Wales as the crwth.

The word crowdy occurs also as a verb in one of the numerous nursery rhymes referring to scenes of revelry, at which folk-humour pictured the cat making music: —

Come dance a jig to my granny's pig,
With a rowdy, rowdy, dowdy;
Come dance a jig to my granny's pig,
And pussy cat shall crowdy.

    (1846, p. 141.)
This verse and a number of others go back to the festivities that were connected with Twelfth Night. Some of them preserve expressions in the form of burdens which have no apparent sense; in other rhymes the same expressions have the force of a definite meaning. Probably the verses in which the words retain a meaning have the greater claim to antiquity.

Thus among the black-letter ballads is a song[23 - Roxburgh Collection, IV, 433.] which is found also in the nursery collection of 1810 under the designation The Lady's Song in Leap Year.

Roses are red, diddle diddle, lavender's blue,
If you will have me, diddle diddle, I will have you.
Lillies are white, diddle diddle, rosemary's green,
When you are king, diddle, diddle, I will be queen.
Call up your men, diddle, diddle, set them to work,
Some to the plough, diddle, diddle, some to the cart.
Some to make hay, diddle, diddle, some to cut corn,
While you and I, diddle, diddle, keep the bed warm.

    (1810, p. 46.)
Halliwell cites this song in a form in which the words are put into the lips of the king, and associates it with the amusements of Twelfth Night: —

Lavender blue, fiddle faddle, lavender green.
When I am king, fiddle faddle, you shall be queen, etc.

    (1849, p. 237.)
The expression diddle diddle according to Murray's Dictionary means to make music without the utterance of words, while fiddle faddle is said to indicate nonsense, and to fiddle is to fuss. But both words seem to go back to the association of dancing, as is suggested by the songs on Twelfth Night, or by the following nursery rhyme which refers to the same celebration.

A cat came fiddling out of the barn,
With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,
She could sing nothing but fiddle cum fee,
The mouse has married the humble bee;
Pipe, cat, dance, mouse;
We'll have a wedding in our good house.

    (1842, p. 102.)
The following variation of this verse occurs in the Nursery Songs published by Rusher: —

A cat came fiddling out of a barn,
With a pair of bagpipes under her arm,
She sang nothing but fiddle-de-dee,
Worried a mouse and a humble bee.
Puss began purring, mouse ran away,
And off the bee flew with a wild huzza!

In both cases the cat was fiddling, that is moving to instrumental music without the utterance of words, and called upon the others to do so while she played the pipes. Her association with an actual fiddle, however, is preserved in the following rhyme which I cite in two of its numerous variations: —

Sing hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,
The cow jump'd over the moon!
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish lick't up the spoon.