Quite good enough for you, sir! &c.
I’ll walk in the kitchen, and walk in the hall,
I’ll take the fairest among you all;
The fairest of all that I can see,
Is pretty Miss Watts, come out to me.
Will you come out?
Oh, no! oh, no!
Naughty Miss Watts she won’t come out,
She won’t come out, she won’t come out;
Naughty Miss Watts she won’t come out,
To help us in our dancing.
Won’t you come out?
Oh, yes! oh, yes!
—Dorsetshire (Folk-lore Journal, vii. 223-224).
(c.) Three children, generally boys, are chosen to represent the three dukes. The rest of the players represent maidens. The three dukes stand in line facing the maidens, who hold hands, and also stand in line. Sufficient space is left between the two lines to admit of each line in turn advancing and retiring. The three dukes commence by singing the first verse, advancing and retiring in line while doing so. The line of maidens then advances singing the second verse. The alternate verses demanding and answering are thus sung. The maidens make curtseys and look coquettishly at the dukes when singing the fourth verse, and draw themselves up stiffly and indignantly when singing the sixth, bending and bowing lowly at the eighth. The dukes look contemptuously and criticisingly at the girls while singing the fifth and seventh verses; at the ninth or last verse they “name” one of the girls, who then crosses over and joins hands with them. The game then continues by all four singing “Here come four dukes a-riding,” and goes on until all the maidens are ranged on the dukes’ side.
This method of playing obtains in most versions of the game, though there are variations and additions in some places. In the [Bocking], [Barnes], [Dublin], [Hurstmonceux], [Settle], [Symondsbury], [Sporle], [Earls Heaton], and [Clapham versions], where the verses begin with “Here comes one Duke a-riding,” one boy stands facing the girls, and sings the first verse advancing and retiring with a dancing step, or with a step to imitate riding. In some instances the “three Dukes” advance in this way. In the [Barnes version], when the chosen girl has walked over to the duke, he takes her hands and dances round with her, while singing the tenth verse. In the [Symondsbury (Dorset) version] the players stand in a group, the duke standing opposite, and when singing the sixth verse, advances to choose the girl. When there is only one player left on the maidens’ side the dukes all sing the seventh verse; they then come forward and claim the last girl, and embrace her as soon as they get her over to their side. In the [Hurstmonceux version], when the girls are all on the dukes’ side, they sing the last verse. Miss Chase does not say whether this is accompanied by dancing round, but it probably would be. In the [Dublin version], after the third verse, the duke tries to carry off the youngest girl, and her side try to save her. In the [Wrotham version], after the girls’ retort, “Quite as good, as you, sir,” the dukes select a girl, who refuses to go to them: they then sing the last six lines when the girl goes over. In the [second Dorset version] (which appeared in the Yarmouth Register, Mass., 1874) the players consisted of a dozen boys standing in line in the usual way, and a dozen girls on the opposite side facing them. The boys sing the first two verses alternately; the girl at first refuses and then consents to go. Dancing round probably accompanies this, but there is no mention of it. In [Roxton, St. Neots], after the verses are sung, the duke and the selected girl clasp hands, and he pulls her across to the opposite side, as in “[Nuts in May].” In [Settle] (Yorks.) the game is called “The Dukes of York and Lancaster.” The first duke advances with a dancing step. The game is then played in the usual way until all the players are ranged on the dukes’ side; then the two original dukes, one of whom is “red” and the other “white,” join hands, and the other players pass under their raised hands. The dukes ask each of them, in a whisper, “red?” or “white?” The player then goes behind the one he or she has chosen, clasping the duke’s waist. When all the players have chosen, a tug-of-war ensues between the two sides. In the [Earls Heaton version], the duke sings the verses, offering gifts to the girl when she has been selected. In the [Oxfordshire version] (Miss Broadwood) one player sings the words of the verse, and all join in the refrain as chorus. In the [Monton (Lancashire) version] the duke sings the last verse, and then takes a girl from the opposite side; and in another version from [Barnes], in which the words of the last verse are the same as these, one of the dukes’ side crosses over and fetches the girl. The duke bows lowly before the chosen girl in the Liphook version before she joins his side. In the [East Kirkby, Lincolnshire, version], when the dukes sing the last verse, they advance towards the opposite side, who, when they see the direction in which they are coming, form two arches, by three of the players holding up their arms, the dukes’ side going through one arch and returning through the other, bringing the chosen girl with them. One Clapham version is played in a totally different manner: the maidens form a circle instead of a line, and the duke stands outside this until he is admitted at the line which says, “let him in.” At the conclusion of the dialogue he breaks in and carries one player off. This is an unusual form; I have only met with one other instance of it.
(d.) The action in many of these versions is described as very spirited: coquetry, contempt, and annoyance being all expressed in action as the words of the game demands. The dancing movement of the boys in the first verse to imitate riding, though belonging to the earlier forms, is, with the exception of two or three versions, only retained in those which are commenced by one player, partly, perhaps, because of the difficulty three or more players experience in “riding” or “prancing” while holding each other’s hands in line form. I have seen the game played when the “prancing” of the dukes (in a game where there were a dozen or more players on each side at starting, as in the [Dorset version]) was as important a feature as the maidens’ actions in the other verses. I think the oldest form of the game is that played by a fairly equal number of players on each side, boys on one side and girls on the other, rather than that of “one” or “three” players on the dukes’ side, and all the others opposite. The game then began with the present words, “Here come three dukes;” these three each chose a girl at the same time, and when these three were wived, another three “dukes” would pair with three more of the girls, and after that another three, and so on. This form would account for the modern idea that the number of dukes increases on every occasion that the verses are sung, after the first wife has been taken over, and until all the girls have been thus chosen. This idea is expressed in some versions by the change of words: “Here’s a fourth [or fifth, and so on] duke come a riding” to take a wife, the chosen maiden becoming a duke as soon as she has passed over on to the dukes’ side. The process of innovation may be traced by the methods of playing. Thus, in one version played at Barnes (similar in other respects to [No. 10]), beginning “three dukes a riding,” three girls were chosen by the three first dukes, one by each, at the same time, and all three girls walked across with the three dukes to the boys’ line, and stood next their respective partners. In two imperfect versions I have obtained in [Regent’s Park, London], the same principle occurs. One girl began—“One duck comes a ridin’,” and two girls from the opposite side walked across; the other “Five dukes come here a ridin’” was played by five players on each side, and this was continued throughout. When the verses were said, each of the five dukes took a player from the opposite side and danced round with her. Again, in those versions ([Symondsbury] and [Barnes]), where when one player is left on the maidens’ side without a partner, and all the dukes are mated, the additional verse is sung, and this player is taken over too. Beyond these versions are the large number beginning with three or more children singing the formula of “three dukes,” and choosing one girl at a time, until all are taken over on to the dukes’ side. Finally, there are the versions, more in accord with modern ideas, which commence with one duke coming for a wife, and continue by the girls taken over counting as dukes, the formula changing into two dukes, and so on.
If this correctly represents the line of decadence in this game, those versions in which additional verses appear are, I think, instances of the tacking on of verses from the “invitation to the dance” or “May” games; particularly in the cases in which the words “Now I’ve got my bonny lass” appear. The [Earls Heaton version] is curious, in that it has several verses which remind us of the old and practically obsolete “Keys of Canterbury” (Halliwell, 96). It may well be that a remembered fragment of that old ballad, which was probably once danced as a dramatic round, has been tacked on to this game. The expression “walk with me,” or “walk abroad with me,” is significant of an engaged or betrothed couple. “I’m walking or walking out with so and so” is still an expression used by young men and young women to indicate an engagement. “She did ought to be married now; she’ve walked wi’ him mor’n’er a year now.” Some of the versions show still more marked signs of decadence. The altered wording, “Here comes a Jew a riding,” “Here comes the Duke of Rideo,” “A duck comes a ridin’,” and the Scotch “Campsie Dukes a riding;” a Berkshire version, collected by Miss Thoyts (Antiquary, xxvii. p. 195), similar to the [Shropshire game], but with a portion of the verse of “Milking Pails” added to it, and the refrain of “Ransome, tansome, tismatee;” together with the disappearance of some of the verses, are all evidently the results of the words being learnt orally, and imperfectly understood, or not understood at all.