Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-03-18
Nursery Rhymes

boys aud girls. forests and fairies,
that appeals most to lis childish i'm
agination. He does not trouble aNout
the Dlot--that can be constructed as
the story pros Cc1s: yet the details
must be in (, mere or less logical Sc
ouence. any gap Or weakness being
met by that eternal question OF the
child-the everlastinG ''Why?" 1t is
at this stage OF development that the
old nursery rhymes lose their attrac-
ton. They haze lived again thei.
brief life of useiulness and once more
fall asleep till TIE baby prattle a|ak-
ems them to their duty Of amusing and
stimulating a new intelligence. For
many centuries this pros ess has been
repeated daily. and it is safe to say
that in the wears which arc to come
they will be found still performing the
same service and meeting with the
same welcome. It has been said tnat
1.-The nursery rhyme is the novel and
light reading of the infant scholar"
and it is somewhat remarkable that
these tales have been able to defy any
attempt on the part of modern COM
position to GUST them from favor.
Many generations of children have
sought the answer to the riddle COM
mencing "HumptyDumpty sat on a
wall" for it is supposed to date from
the time of the Magma Charta 1215),
referring to a baron who. was short,
thick and round. Another reference
gives the Wars of the Roses Q455-
85) as the occasion of the lines There
is slightly different rendering. which
perhaps shows more clearly the evi.
dence of the bad, bold days:
"Humpty-Dumpty lay in a beck "a
brook,
With all his snews round his neck.
Forty doctors and forty wrights
Couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty to
r rights - .1.
Another very Old rhyme is that OF
Little Jack Horner." There is a ira
dition in the west of England that at
the time of the suppression of the
monasteries in 1888 the title deeds Of
the abbey at Wells we're sent to Hen
ry VIII In an imitation pie, in charge
of the abbot's steward, Jack Horner
During his journey, however, "he put
in his thumb and pulled out plumb"
which proved to be the title deeds
themselves! r
From the reign of Queen Elizabeth
(155S-1603) we get many references
to the domestic cat. IN addition to
the proverb "a cat may look at a
queen" there are couple Of very
popular rhymes. The first, Ding.
dong, bell" was in all probability we'll
known in Shakespeare's day for he
uses the words in at least two of his
plays, on both occasions as refrain
to songs. In 1.-THE Tempest" Ariel
sings of the drowning of the king OF
Naples, concluding thus: ....
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now / hear them-Ding, dong,
hell" e-tE.> -.... ~.
In "The Merchant of Venice, act
4 3, at the request of Portia, a song is
sung while Bassanio examines the
caskets:
Tell me where is fancy bred, j..
Or in the heart. or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
1t Is engender'd in the eyes,
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
! In the cradle where it lies.
Let us ring fancys knell ~.
III begin it---Ding dong, bell
The other rhyme is the one COM
mencing "Pussy-cat, Pussy-cat, where
have you been?" and refers to fright
f! Queen Elizabeth had when mouse
was discovered among the folds of
her robe. -,% 49,. 'l,.
There are few nursery rhymes
which are founded on actual Incl
dents "Hush-a-by. baby, on the tree
top" is one of these. 1t is recorded
by the Boston Gu. S. Al Historical
society that shortly after the Pilgrim
Fathers landed in Massachusetts, in
1920, a party were out in the fields
where the Indian women were picking
Strawberries. Several of the women
had children with them, and having no
cradle they had tied them up in Indian
fashion and hung them from the limbs
of the surrounding trees. A young
man of the party, observing this, pull
ed off a piece of bark, and wrote the
now well known lines. These, adds
the record, 'are believed to be the
first poetry written in America
A rhyme-a great favorite in the
nursery-which has an interesting his
tory is Mary had little lamb" The
verses refer to actual incidents which
took place in the early part of last
century. Mary was Mary Elizabeth
Sawyer, the daughter of farmer OF
Massachusetts. While she was yet a
little girl her father brought home one
day young lamb, and Mary asked
for it as a special pet. In time the
lamb died, and Mary's mother spun
the whole of the wool for the purpose
of making clothing for her family, and
with some of it knitted for Mary pair
of Stockings, which were much priced
and taken great care of. Many years
later Mary gave one of the stockings
to a church bazaar at Boston, and it
soon became known that this stocking
had been knitted from the wool of
Mary's lamb. The yarn was unravel-
led and cut into pieces, each piece be-
ing mounted on card. These cards,
bearing Mary's signature, realized
nearly 30 pounds. The first two
verses were written by school fellow
Of Mary's, the remaining three having
been added some years later. "
The science Of folklore, of which
cnursery rhymes form part is of COM
paratively recent growth. The term
itself was first used in 1s46, although
From the middle of the seventeenth