—Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 564.
(c) In the [London version], which I obtained from a maid-servant—two lines of children stand, hand in hand, facing one another. They advance and retire in line, with dancing steps, alternately. The children sing the lines. When the last verse is sung a girl from the end of each line advances, and the two dance round together. This is continued until all have danced in turn in the space between the lines.
(d) It will be seen that there is a probability of the [version] I collected as a dance game and [Rimbault’s nursery song] being derived from the Christmas carol, a [variant] of which I reprint from Miss Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore. A version of this carol from Kent is given in Notes and Queries, 3rd series, iii. 7. Mr. A. H. Bullen, in Carols and Poems, gives an older version of the same. In this version there is no mention of whistling, singing, or playing the violin; but in the Kent version, the third verse is the same as the fourth of that collected by Miss Burne, and the dance collected by myself. In the Revue Celtique, vol. iv., Mr. Fitzgerald considers this carol to have been the original from which the pretty words and dance, “[Duck Dance],” were derived, see ante, vol. i. p. 113. If these words and dance owe their origin to the carol, they may both show connection with an older form, when the carol was danced as a dramatic round.
Three Old Bachelors
Here come three old bachelors,
Walking in a row,
Seeking wives, and can’t find ’em;
So open the ring, and take one in.
Now you’re married, you must obey;
You must be true to all you say;
You must be kind, you must be good,
And help your wife to chop the wood.
—Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy).
Mr. Hardy suggests that this is a variant of “See the Farmer Sow his Seed,” but it more nearly resembles “[Silly Old Man],” although the marriage formula is that of “[Oats and Beans].”
Three Sailors
[[Play]]
