In Deuteromalia of 1609 this stands as follows:—
Three blind mice, three blind mice!
Dame Julian, the miller and his merry old wife
She scrapte the tripe, take thow the knife.
Among the popular songs which have found their way into nursery collections is the one known as A Frog he would a wooing go, the subject of which is old. Already in 1549 the shepherds of Scotland sang a song called, The Frog cam to the Myldur. In the year 1580 there was licensed, A most strange Wedding of the Frog and the Mouse, as appears from the books of the Stationers' Company cited by Warton.[19] The song has been preserved in many variations with a variety of burdens. These burdens sound like nonsense, but in some cases the same words appear elsewhere in a different application, which shows that they were not originally unmeaning.
The oldest known version of the song begins:—
It was a frog in the well, humble dum, humble dum,
And the mouse in the mill, tweedle tweedle twino.[20]
The expression humble dum occurs in other songs and seems to indicate triumph; the word tweedle represents the sound made by the pipes.
A Scottish variation of the song begins:—
There lived a Puddy in a well, Cuddy alone, Cuddy alone,
There lived a Puddy in a well, Cuddy alone and I.[21]
In the nursery collection of c. 1783 the song begins:—
There was a frog liv'd in a well, Kitty alone, Kitty alone,
There was a frog liv'd in a well.
There was a frog liv'd in a well, Kitty alone and I.
And a farce mouse in a mill,
Cock me cary, Kitty alone, Kitty alone and I.
(c. 1783, p. 4.)