"I do not like thee, Doctor Fell" | |
---|---|
Nursery rhyme | |
Written | 1680 |
Genre | Traditional rhyme |
Songwriter(s) | Tom Brown |
I do not like (or love) thee, Doctor Fell is an epigram, said to have been translated by satirical English poet Tom Brown in 1680. [1] [2] Later it has been recorded as a nursery rhyme and a proverb.
The anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme is that when Brown was a student at Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief. The college dean, John Fell (1625–1686) had expelled Brown but offered to take him back if he passed a test. If Brown could make an extempore translation of the thirty-second epigram of Martial, his expulsion would be cancelled. The epigram in Latin is as follows:
Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
Hoc tantum possum dicere: non amo te, [3]
a literal translation of which is "I do not like you, Sabidius, nor can I say why. This much I can say: I do not like you." Brown successfully met the challenge with his impromptu version, which soon became well known:
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why – I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell. [3]
The story is that Dr. Fell stayed Brown's dismissal but the story is apocryphal. All that is known is that Brown left Oxford without a degree.
The verse was not mentioned as a nursery rhyme until late in the 19th century and did not appear in collections of such material. In 1802 it was quoted in an English parliamentary debate (with reference to Martial's epigram) as "the English parody". [4] The 1809 British Encyclopedia mentions its earlier appearance in a novel by Samuel Richardson. [5] But by 1877 it is referred to as "the old nursery rhyme" in the course of a New Zealand parliamentary debate. [6] And in the US it was described as a "nursery jingle" in the 1914 edition of The Pottery & Glass Salesman. [7] The young Samuel Barber also included it among his "Nursery rhymes or Mother Goose rhymes set to music" (1918–22). [8]
The rhyme later appeared in The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (1935), but with no mention of a nursery connection. [9] In 1927, however, Robert Graves included it in his collection of The Less Familiar Nursery Rhymes in a version that later appeared in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951).
In poetry, a couplet is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. In a run-on (open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second.
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek ἐπίγραμμα. This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia.
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.
John Fell was an English churchman and influential academic. He served as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and later concomitantly as Bishop of Oxford.
Thomas Brown, also known as Tom Brown, was an English translator and satirist, largely forgotten today save for a four-line gibe that he may have written concerning John Fell.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The nursery rhyme has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19800. The names have since become synonymous in western popular culture slang for any two people whose appearances and actions are identical.
"Ring a Ring o' Roses", "Ring a Ring o' Rosie", or "Ring Around the Rosie", is a nursery rhyme, folk song and playground singing game. Descriptions first emerge in the mid-19th century, but are reported as dating from decades before, and similar rhymes are known from across Europe, with various lyrics. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7925.
"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" is an English nursery rhyme, the earliest printed version of which dates from around 1744. The words have barely changed in two and a half centuries. It is sung to a variant of the 18th century French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, maman.
"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.
A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied in some cultures more than others, they appear to be universal in human society.
"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.
Hot Cross Buns was an English street cry, later perpetuated as a nursery rhyme and an aid in musical education. It refers to the spiced English confection known as a hot cross bun, which is associated with the end of Lent and is eaten on Good Friday in various countries. The song has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13029.
"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 Lion and the Unicorn are symbols of the United Kingdom. They are, properly speaking, heraldic supporters appearing in the full royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The lion stands for England and the unicorn for Scotland. The combination therefore dates back to the 1603 accession of James I of England who was already James VI of Scotland. By extension, they are also used in the arms of Newfoundland since 1637, the arms of Hanover between 1837–1866, and the arms of Canada since 1921.
"Little Tommy Tucker" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19618.
"Round and round the garden" is an English language nursery rhyme typically accompanied by fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19235.
"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride" is a proverb and nursery rhyme, first recorded about 1628 in a collection of Scottish proverbs, which suggests if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20004.
"Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be?", also known as "Johnny's So Long at the Fair" is a traditional nursery rhyme that can be traced back as far as the 1770s in England. There are several variations on its lyrics. It has Roud Number 1279.
The gens Sabidia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. Few members of this gens are mentioned in ancient writers, but a number are known from inscriptions.