The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 85

I will rise up upon my feet, To see my lover go through the street.

-Ninfield, Suss.e.x, about sixty years ago (Charles Wise).

III. Rise daughter, rise daughter, off of your poor feet, To see your dear mother lie dead at your feet.

I won't rise, I won't rise off of my poor feet, To see my dear mother lie dead at my feet.

Rise daughter, rise daughter, off of your poor feet, To see your poor father lie dead at your feet.

I won't rise, I won't rise off of my poor feet, To see my poor father lie dead at my feet.

Rise daughter, rise daughter, off of your poor feet, To see your dear sister lie dead at your feet.

I won't rise, I won't rise off of my poor feet, To see my poor sister lie dead at my feet.

Rise daughter, rise daughter, off of your poor feet, To see your poor brother lie dead at your feet.

I won't rise, I won't rise off of my poor feet, To see my poor brother lie dead at my feet.

Rise daughter, rise daughter, off of your poor feet, To see your dear sweetheart lie dead at your feet.

I will rise, I will rise off of my poor feet, To see my dear sweetheart lie dead at my feet.

-Barnes, Surrey (A. B. Gomme).

IV. Rise daughter, rise daughter, Rise from off your knees, To see your poor father lie Down at yonder trees.

I won't rise, I won't rise, From off my knees, To see my poor father lie Down at yonder trees.

[The verses are then repeated for mother, sister, brother, and sweetheart. When this is said the girl sings-]

I will rise, I will rise, From off my knees, To see my sweetheart lie Down at yonder trees.

-Hurstmonceux, Suss.e.x (Miss Chase).

V. Here we all stand round the ring, And now we shut poor Mary in; Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, And see your poor mother go through the town.

[Then follow verses the same as in the Barnes version, No. 1, and then-]

Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, To see the poor beggars go through the town.

I will not stand up upon my feet To see the poor beggars go through the street.

[Two other verses are sometimes added, introducing gentleman and ladies.

All versions, however, conclude with the girl saying-]

Rise up, rise up, poor Mary Brown, And see your poor sweetheart go through the town.

I will get up upon my feet, To see my sweetheart go through the street.

-Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 218.

(_b_) The children form a ring, one child laying or kneeling down in the centre. The ring sing the first, third, fifth, and alternate verses; the girl in the middle answers with the second, fourth, and so on alternately. At the last verse the girl jumps up and breaks through the ring by force; another girl takes her place in the ring, and the game begins again. The Suss.e.x version of "Mary Brown" (Chas. Wise) is played by the children standing in line and advancing and retiring towards the lying or kneeling child. The Barnes version of "Rise, Daughter" is also played in this way. The "daughter" lays down, and at the end of the game joins the line, and another lays down. In the Hurstmonceux version, when the last verse is sung, the girl in the middle rises and picks a boy out of the ring; he goes in the middle with her, and they kiss. The version given by Halliwell is played in the same way as the Barnes version.

(_c_) Halliwell (_Game Rhymes_, p. 219) gives a version of a Swedish ballad or ring dance-song, ent.i.tled "Fair Gundela," he considers this may be a prototype of the English game, or that they may both be indebted to a more primitive original. The Swedish game rather gives the idea of a maiden who has sought supernatural a.s.sistance from a wise woman, or witch, to ask after the fate of those dear to her, and the English versions may also be dramatic renderings of a ballad of this character. Mr. Jacobs' _More English Fairy Tales_, p. 221, considers this game to have originated from the Tale of the "Golden Ball."

Mary mixed a Pudding up

Mary mixed a pudding up, She mixed it very sweet, She daren't stick a knife in Till John came home at neet [ = night].

Taste John, taste John, don't say nay, Perhaps to-morrow morning will be our wedding-day.

The bells shall ring and we shall sing, And all clap hands together (round the ring).

Up the lane and down, It's slippery as a gla.s.s, If we go to Mrs. -- We'll find a nice young la.s.s.

Mary with the rosy cheeks, Catch her if you can; And if you cannot catch her, We'll tell you her young man.

-Hanging Heaton (Herbert Hardy).

A ring is formed by the children joining hands, one child in the centre.

The first verse is sang. Two children from the ring go to the one in the centre and _ask_ her who is her love, or as they say here [Yorks.], "who she goes with;" after that the rest is sung.

See "All the Boys."

Merrils

See "Nine Men's Morris."

Merritot, or the Swing

This sport, which is sometimes called "Shuggy-shew" in the North of England, is described as follows by Gay:-

"On two near elms the slackened cord I hung, Now high, now low, my Blouzalinda swung."

So Rogers, in the _Pleasures of Memory_, l. 77:-

"Soar'd in the swing, half pleas'd and half afraid, Through sister elms that wav'd their summer shade."

Speght, in his _Glossary_, says, "'Meritot,' a sport used by children by swinging themselves in bell-ropes, or such like, till they are giddy."

In _Mercurialis de Arte Gymnastica_, p. 216, there is an engraving of this exercise.

Halliwell quotes from a MS. _Yorks.h.i.+re Glossary_, as follows:-"'Merrytrotter,' a rope fastened at each end to a beam or branch of a tree, making a curve at the bottom near the floor or ground in which a child can sit, and holding fast by each side of the rope, is swung backwards and forwards."

Baker (_Northamptons.h.i.+re Glossary_) calls "Merrytotter" the game of "See-saw," and notes that the antiquity of the game is shown by its insertion in Pynson, "Myry totir, child's game, oscillum."

Chaucer probably alludes to it in the following lines of the _Miller's Tale_-