Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus, edited by the literary antiquary Joseph Ritson, is one of the earliest collections of English nursery rhymes. It was first published as a chapbook in 1784, but was three times reprinted in expanded editions during the following century, as were several unrelated children's books with similar titles. Gammer Gurton's Garland put into print for the first time some of our best-known nursery rhymes.
Joseph Ritson was a young London antiquary, originally from Stockton-on-Tees, whose interests were in the early 1780s turning towards nursery rhymes. In 1781 he bought a copy of the pioneering collection Mother Goose's Melody , [1] and the following year encouraged his nephew to note down any such rhymes he came across. [2] In 1784 [lower-alpha 1] his Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus, containing 79 nursery rhymes, was published by the Stockton bookseller R. Christopher as a 32mo chapbook priced at twopence. [1] [4] Only one copy is known to survive, now held in the British Library. [5] [6] An undated second edition was later published, in which three of the original rhymes were left out, and replaced by four others. [3] A third edition, published in 1810, seven years after Ritson's death, reprinted the 79 rhymes from the first edition and added a further 55. [7] A major contributor to this volume, and very likely its editor, was the literary scholar Francis Douce. [8] A fourth edition, limited to 112 copies, was published in Glasgow in 1866. [9] There are several modern reprints.
Gammer Gurton's Garland has been called one of the four foundational collections of English nursery rhymes, the others being Nancy Cock's Song-Book (1744), Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book (1744), and Mother Goose's Melody (1780). [6] Ritson knew the last of these and incorporated about two-thirds of its rhymes into his own collection, sometimes in variant versions, along with many that had never been printed before. [10] Among the well-known nursery rhymes published for the first time in Ritson's original edition of Gammer Gurton's Garland are [11]
Other rhymes of which it gives early texts include [12]
The name Gammer Gurton was not originated by Ritson. It first appears in the 16th-century comedy Gammer Gurton's Needle , and from there it came to be used as the name of the typical grandmother. [13]
In the early 19th century appeared a number of children's books naming Gammer Gurton in their titles, some of which have been mistakenly attributed to Joseph Ritson. These include Gammer Gurton's Garland of Nursery Songs, and Toby Tickle's Collection of Riddles (undated, but perhaps 1810); Gammer Gurton's Pleasant Stories (1846); Gammer Gurton's Famous Histories (undated, but perhaps 1846), a work later reissued as Gammer Gurton's Story Books; and Gammer Gurton's Garland (undated), a collection of 12 nursery rhymes beginning with "Jenny Wren fell sick" and ending with "London Bridge is broken down". All of these apart from the first can be securely attributed to William John Thoms. [14]
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth-century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs. Its origins are obscure, and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings.
"Little Bo-Peep" or "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6487.
"Hey Diddle Diddle" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.
Joseph Ritson was an English antiquary who is well known for editing the first scholarly collection of Robin Hood ballads (1795). After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the ideals of the French Revolution. He was also an influential vegetarianism activist. He is also known for his collections of English nursery rhymes, such as "Roses Are Red" and "Little Bo-Peep", in Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus, published in London by Joseph Johnson.
"Roses Are Red" is the name of a love poem and children's rhyme with Roud Folk Song Index number 19798. It has become a cliché for Valentine's Day, and has spawned multiple humorous and parodic variants.
"Sing a Song of Sixpence" is an English nursery rhyme, perhaps originating in the 18th century. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 13191. The sixpence in the rhyme is a British coin that was first minted in 1551.
"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme of which there are early occurrences in the US and UK. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11284.
"Doctor Foster" is an English language nursery rhyme that has appeared in many anthologies since the nineteenth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19288.
"Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top" is a nursery rhyme and lullaby. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2768.
"Goosey Goosey Gander" is an English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6488.
"There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme, with a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19132. Debates over its meaning and origin have largely centered on attempts to match the old woman with historical female figures who have had large families, although King George II (1683–1760) has also been proposed as the rhyme's subject.
The Fox is a traditional folk song from England. It is also the subject of at least two picture books, The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night: An Old Song, illustrated by Peter Spier and Fox Went out on a Chilly Night, by Wendy Watson. The earliest version of the song was a Middle English poem, dating from the 15th century, found in the British Museum.
"I See the Moon (Over the Mountain)" is a popular song, written by Meredith Willson in 1953.
"Taffy was a Welshman" is an English language nursery rhyme which was popular between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19237.
Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book is the first extant anthology of English nursery rhymes, published in London in 1744. It contains the oldest printed texts of many well-known and popular rhymes, as well as several that eventually dropped out of the canon of rhymes for children. A copy is held in the British Library. In 2013 a facsimile edition with an introduction by Andrea Immel and Brian Alderson was published by the Cotsen Occasional Press.
"There was an old woman lived under a hill" is a nursery rhyme which dates back to at least its first known printing in 1714. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 797.
"Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross" is an English language nursery rhyme connected with the English town Banbury in Oxfordshire. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 21143.
Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames: The D'Antin Manuscript, published in 1967 by Luis d'Antin van Rooten, is purportedly a collection of poems written in archaic French with learned glosses. In fact, they are English-language nursery rhymes written homophonically as a nonsensical French text ; that is, as an English-to-French homophonic translation. The result is not merely the English nursery rhyme but that nursery rhyme as it would sound if spoken in English by someone with a strong French accent. Even the manuscript's title, when spoken aloud, sounds like "Mother Goose Rhymes" with a strong French accent; it literally means "Words of Hours: Pods, Paddles."
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