> --following the development of this legend is a hobby of mine.
> Susan Carroll-Clark
I can't add anything to the historical development of this
"legendary" children's verse, but a while ago I looked into another
one: Pop Goes the Weasel. It turns out that it can be traced back to
a 16th-century popular song from London which originally went:
Up and down the City Road,
In and out the Eagle,
That's the way the money goes.
Pop goes the weasel.
The original was most certainly not directed towards children but
towards a perhaps somewhat seedy class of adults. It was all
about dicy financial speculations and drinking up one's capital, the
Eagle, of course, being a pub. The phrase "pop goes the weasel"
apparently referred to pawning one's furs. The song seems to have
stayed popular because of the catchy tune, but of course, the rest of
the original lyrics were turned into gibberish, as being more
appropriate for children. So, as it stands, we have a 16th-century
tune with one line of London slang, and the rest is much later
nonsense. I'm not sure if it can still be regarded as an
"early-modern" song, but it perhaps points out the slippery
historical mechanisms behind "traditional" children's songs.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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