4. And who did make his shroud?
I said the beetle, with my little needle,
And I did make his shroud.
The Death and Burial of Cock Robin formed the contents of a toy-book that was printed by Marshall in London, by Rusher in Banbury, and others. One of the early toy-books belonging to Pearson, which are exhibited at South Kensington Museum, contain verses of this knell with quaint illustrations. The toy-book published by Marshall which contains the knell, is described as "a pretty gilded toy, for either girl or boy." It leads up to the knell by the following verse, which occurs already as a separate rhyme in the nursery collection of 1744:—
Little Robin Redbreast sitting on [or sat upon] a pole,
Niddle noddle [or wiggle waggle] went his head [tail]
And poop went his hole.
This is followed by the picture of a dead robin with the words:—
Here lies Cock Robin, dead and cold,
His end this book will soon unfold.
We then read the four verses of the knell already cited, and further verses on the owl so brave that dug the grave; the parson rook who read the book; the lark who said amen like a clerk; the kite who came in the night; the wren, both cock and hen; the thrush sitting in a bush; the bull who the bell did pull.
In another toy-book the magpie takes the place of the fly, and from the illustration in a third one we gather that not a bull but a bullfinch originally pulled the bell.
The toy-book published by Marshall concludes:—
All the birds of the air
Fell to sighing and sobbing,
When they heard the bell toll
For poor Cock Robin.
(Reprint 1849, p. 169 ff.)
The antiquity of this knell of the robin is apparent when we come to compare it with its foreign parallels, which are current in France, Italy, and Spain. In these rhymes also, those who undertake the office of burial are usually birds, but the nature of him whose death is deplored remains obscure.