Volume I Part 27 (2/2)

(_c_) This game is evidently a dramatic representation of wooing, and probably the action of the game has never been quite completed in the nursery. The verses are given as ”nursery rhymes” by Halliwell, Nos.

cccclx.x.xiii. and ccccxciv. The tune is from Rimbault's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 70. The words given by him are the same as the Earls Heaton version.

Currants and Raisins

Currants and raisins a penny a pound, Three days holiday.

This is a game played ”running under a handkerchief;” ”something like 'Oranges and Lemons.'”-Lincoln (Miss M. Peac.o.c.k).

Cus.h.i.+on Dance

[Music]

-_Dancing Master_, 1686.

This music is exactly as it is printed in the book referred to.

(_b_) The following is an account of the dance as it was known in Derbys.h.i.+re amongst the farmers' sons and daughters and the domestics, all of whom were on a pretty fair equality, very different from what prevails in farm-houses of to-day. The ”Cus.h.i.+on Dance” was a famous old North-country amus.e.m.e.nt, and among the people of Northumberland it is still commonly observed. The dance was performed with boisterous fun, quite unlike the game as played in higher circles, where the conditions and rules of procedure were of a more refined order.

The company were seated round the room, a fiddler occupying a raised seat in a corner. When all were ready, two of the young men left the room, returning presently, one carrying a large square cus.h.i.+on, the other an ordinary drinking-horn, china bowl, or silver tankard, according to the possessions of the family. The one carrying the cus.h.i.+on locked the door, putting the key in his pocket. Both gentlemen then went to the fiddler's corner, and after the cus.h.i.+on-bearer had put a coin in the vessel carried by the other, the fiddler struck up a lively tune, to which the young men began to dance round the room, singing or reciting to the music:-

Frink.u.m, frank.u.m is a fine song, An' we will dance it all along; All along and round about, Till we find the pretty maid out.

After making the circuit of the room, they halted on reaching the fiddler's corner, and the cus.h.i.+on-bearer, still to the music of the fiddle, sang or recited:-

Our song it will no further go!

The Fiddler: Pray, kind sir, why say you so?

The Cus.h.i.+on-bearer: Because Jane Sandars won't come to.

The Fiddler: She must come to, she shall come to, An' I'll make her whether she will or no.

The cus.h.i.+on-bearer and vessel-holder then proceeded with the dance, going as before round the room, singing ”Frink.u.m, frank.u.m,” &c., till the cus.h.i.+on-bearer came to the lady of his choice, before whom he paused, placed the cus.h.i.+on on the floor at her feet, and knelt upon it.

The vessel-bearer then offered the cup to the lady, who put money in it and knelt on the cus.h.i.+on in front of the kneeling gentleman. The pair kissed, arose, and the gentleman, first giving the cus.h.i.+on to the lady with a bow, placed himself behind her, taking hold of some portion of her dress. The cup-bearer fell in also, and they danced on to the fiddler's corner, and the ceremony was again gone through as at first, with the subst.i.tution of the name of ”John” for ”Jane,” thus:-

The Lady: Our song it will no further go!

The Fiddler: Pray, kind miss, why say you so?

The Lady: Because John Sandars won't come to.

The Fiddler: He must come to, he shall come to, An' I'll make him whether he will or no!

The dancing then proceeded, and the lady, on reaching her choice (a gentleman, of necessity), placed the cus.h.i.+on at his feet. He put money in the horn and knelt. They kissed and rose, he taking the cus.h.i.+on and his place in front of the lady, heading the next dance round, the lady taking him by the coat-tails, the first gentleman behind the lady, with the horn-bearer in the rear. In this way the dance went on till all present, alternately a lady and gentleman, had taken part in the ceremony. The dance concluded with a romp in file round the room to the quickening music of the fiddler, who at the close received the whole of the money collected by the horn-bearer.

At Charminster the dance is begun by a single person (either man or woman), who dances about the room with a cus.h.i.+on in his hand, and at the end of the tune stops and sings:-

Man: This dance it will no further go.

Musician: I pray you, good sir, why say you so?

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