Volume I Part 8 (1/2)
-Belfast (W. H. Patterson).
IV. Up the plain and down the plain, As stippy [slippery] as a gla.s.s, We will go to Mrs. -- To find a pretty la.s.s.
[Annie] with her rosy cheeks, Catch her if you can, And if you cannot catch her I'll tell you who's the man.
[Annie] made a pudding, She made it very sweet; She daren't stick a knife in Till George came home at neet [night].
Taste [George], taste, and don't say Nay!
Perhaps to-morrow morning'll be our wedding day.
[The bells shall ring, and we shall sing, And all clap hands together.][2]
-Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy).
(_b_) A full description of this game could not be obtained in each case. The Earls Heaton game is played by forming a ring, one child standing in the centre. After the first verse is sung, a child from the ring goes to the one in the centre. Then the rest of the verses are sung. The action to suit the words of the verses does not seem to have been kept up. In the Hamps.h.i.+re version, after the line ”As a bird upon a tree,” the two children named pair off like sweethearts while the rest of the verse is being sung.
(_c_) The a.n.a.lysis of the game rhymes is as follows:-
+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
Hants.
Deptford (Kent).
Belfast.
+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
1.
Village life.
Village life.
Hunting life.
2.
All the boys happy.
All the boys happy.
All l.u.s.ty bachelors.
3.
Except [ ], who
Except [ ], who
Except [ ], who
wants a wife.
wants a wife.
courts [ ].
4.
He shall court [ ].
He shall court [ ].
He courted [ ].
5.
Huddles and cuddles,
Kisses and cuddles,
Huggled andguggled,
and sits on his knee.
and sits on his knee.
and took on his knee.
6.
-
-
-
7.
Mutual expressions of
Mutual expressions of
-
love.
love.
8.
-
-
Asking to marry.
9.
Wife makes a pudding.
Girl makes a pudding.
Girl makes a pudding.
10.
Husband cuts a slice.
Boy cuts a slice.
Asks boy to taste.
11.
Fixing of wedding day.
Fixing of wedding day.
Fixing of wedding day.
12.
Wife in carriage,
Wife with domestic
Bride with rings on
husband in cart.
utensils.
fingers and bells on
toes.
13.
-
Grief if wife should
-
die.
14.
-
-
Bride with a baby.
15.
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