Ring me (1), ring me (2), ring me rary (3),
As I go round (4) ring by ring (5),
A virgin (6) goes a-maying (7);
Here’s a flower (8), and there’s a flower (9),
Growing in my lady’s garden (10).
If you set your foot awry (11),
Gentle John will make you cry (12);
If you set your foot amiss (13),
Gentle John (14) will give you a kiss.
This [lady or gentleman] is none of ours,
Has put [him or her] self in [child’s name] power;
So clap all hands and ring all bells, and make the wedding o’er.
—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, p. 67.
II.
As I go round ring by ring,
A maiden goes a-maying;
And here’s a flower, and there’s a flower,
As red as any daisy.
If you set your foot amiss,
Gentle John will give you a kiss.
—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, p. 125.
(b) A number of boys and girls stand round one in the middle, who repeats the lines, counting the children until one is counted out by the end of the verse. The child upon whom (14) falls is then taken out and forced to select one of the other sex. The middle child then proceeds to say the three last lines. All the children clap hands during the saying (or singing) of the last line. If the child taken by lot joins in the clapping, the selected child is rejected, and, I believe, takes the middle place. Otherwise, I think there is a salute.—Halliwell.
(c) This game is recorded by no authority except Halliwell, and no version has reached me, so that I suppose it is now obsolete. It is a very good example of the oldest kind of game, choosing partners or lovers by the “lot,” and may be a relic of the May-day festival, when the worship of Flora was accompanied by rites of marriage not in accord with later ideas.
Ring-taw
A rough ring is made on the ground, and the players each place in it an equal share in “stonies,” or alleys. They each bowl to the ring with another marble from a distance. The boy whose marble is nearest has the first chance to “taw;” if he misses a shot the second boy, whose marble was next nearest to the ring, follows, and if he misses, the next, and so on. If one player knocks out a marble, he is entitled to “taw” at the rest in the ring until he misses; and if a sure “tawer” not one of the others may have the chance to taw. Any one’s “taw” staying within the ring after being tawn at the “shots,” is said to be “fat,” and the owner of the “taw” must then replace any marbles he has knocked out in the ring.—Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy). Halliwell (Dictionary) describes this game very much as above, except that a fine is imposed on those who leave the taw in the ring. Ross and Stead (Holderness Glossary) give this game as follows:—“Two boys place an equal number of marbles in the form of a circle, which are then shot at alternately, each boy pocketing the marbles he hits.” Addy (Sheffield Glossary) says, “Ring-taw” is a marble marked with a red ring used in the game of marbles. This is commonly called “ring” for short. Evans (Leicestershire Glossary) describes the game much the same as above, but adds some further details of interest. “If the game be knuckle-up the player stands and shoots in that position. If the game be knuckle-down he must stoop and shoot with the knuckle of the first finger touching the ground at taw. In both cases, however, the player’s toe must be on taw. The line was thus called taw as marking the place for the toe of the player, and the marble a taw as being the one shot from the taw-line, in contradistinction to those placed passively in the ring-‘line’ in the one case, and ‘marble’ in the other being dropped as superfluous.”—Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, p. 384) alludes to the game.