Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book

Last updated

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.

Contents

Publication

With the full title of Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book Voll. [sic] II, this was a sequel to the now lost Tommy Thumb's Song Book , published in London by Mary Cooper in 1744. [1] [2] [3] For many years, it was thought that there was only a single copy in existence, now in the British Library, [4] but in 2001 another copy appeared and was sold for £45,000. [5] As a result, this is the oldest printed collection of English nursery rhymes that is available. Henry Carey's 1725 satire on Ambrose Philips, Namby Pamby, quotes or alludes to some half-dozen or so nursery rhymes. [6] The rhymes and illustrations were printed from copper plates, the text being stamped with punches into the plates, a technique borrowed from map and music printing. It is 3×13⁄4 inches and it is printed in alternate openings in red and black ink. [6]

Contents

The book contains forty nursery rhymes, many of which are still popular, including;

There are also a number of less familiar rhymes, some of which were probably unsuitable for later sensibilities, including:

Piss a Bed,
Piss a Bed,
Barley Butt,
Your Bum is so heavy,
You can't get up.

Some nursery rhymes turn up in disguise:

The Moon shines Bright,
The Stars give a light,
And you may kiss
A pretty girl
At ten a clock at night.

This is an earlier version of:

When I was a little boy
My mammy kept me in,
Now I am a great boy,
I'm fit to serve the king.
I can handle a musket,
And I can smoke a pipe.
And I can kiss a pretty girl
At twelve o'clock at night. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nursery rhyme</span> Traditional song or poem for children

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgie Porgie</span> Traditional song

"Georgie Porgie" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has the Roud Folk Song Index number 19532.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ladybird Ladybird</span> Nursery rhyme

"Ladybird, Ladybird" is the first line of an English-language nursery rhyme that also has German analogues. It is included in the Roud Folk Song Index as number of 16215.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Boy Blue</span> Nursery rhyme

"Little Boy Blue" is an English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11318.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oranges and Lemons</span> Folk song

"Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190. The earliest known printed version appeared c. 1744.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary</span> English nursery rhyme

"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" is an English nursery rhyme. The rhyme has been seen as having religious and historical significance, but its origins and meaning are disputed. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19626.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baa, Baa, Black Sheep</span> English nursery rhyme

"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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cock Robin</span> English nursery rhyme

"Who Killed Cock Robin" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 494.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">This Is the House That Jack Built</span> British nursery rhyme and cumulative tale

"This Is the House That Jack Built" is a popular English nursery rhyme and cumulative tale. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20854. It is Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index type 2035.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Tommy Tucker</span> Nursery rhyme

"Little Tommy Tucker" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19618.

"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.

"Girls and Boys Come Out to Play" or "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" is a nursery rhyme that has existed since at least 1708. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5452.

"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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross</span> English nursery rhyme

"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.

<i>Tommy Thumbs Song Book</i> Book by Nurse Lovechild

Tommy Thumb's Song Book is the earliest known collection of British nursery rhymes, printed in 1744. No original copy has survived, but its content has been recovered from later reprints. It contained many rhymes that are still well known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Robin Redbreast</span> Traditional song

‘Little Robin Redbreast’ is an English language nursery rhyme, chiefly notable as evidence of the way traditional rhymes are changed and edited. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20612.

<i>Gammer Gurtons Garland</i>

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.

Mary Cooper was an English publisher and bookseller based in London who flourished between 1743 and 1761. With Thomas Boreman, she is the earliest publisher of children's books in English, predating John Newbery.

References

  1. ↑ Wolf, Shelby; Coats, Karen; Enciso, Patricia A.; Jenkins, Christine (2010). Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature. Routledge. p. 188. ISBN   9780203843543.
  2. ↑ "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book". British Library.
  3. ↑ Lynch, Jack. The Oxford Handbook of British Poetry, 1660-1800. Oxford University Press. p. 90.
  4. ↑ British Library, "Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book". retrieved 14 November 2009.
  5. ↑ "Rhyme book fetches £45,500". 13 December 2001, Telegraph.co.uk, Retrieved 14 November 09.
  6. 1 2 H. Carpenter and M. Prichard, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 533–4.
  7. ↑ William S. Baring-Gould and Ceil Baring-Gould, The Annotated Mother Goose, pp. 24–43.

Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book at the British Library

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.