Subject: RE: froggie went a courtin From: GUEST,ETS Date: 27 Mar 09 - 10:53 AM Annabelle, I'm wondering if we learned this song listening to the same family. I learned this song that way with the chorus (as I heard it/remembered it) being "Kemi kimo, in the land of pharoh pharoh, come a rat trap pennywinkle Tommydoodle rattlebugar rat trap kemi won't you ki-me-oh." |
Subject: RE: froggie went a courtin From: Jim Carroll Date: 28 Nov 13 - 01:43 PM Nicest version I've heard in a long time - from the cassette album, Here is a Health Jim Carroll There was a frog lived in a well Fall aye linkum laddie And a mouse that kept a mill Tidy Ann, tidy Ann, ditherum di dum dandy One day says the frog, I'm going to court With my shoes as black as soot The horse he rode was a big black snail Saddle and bridle in under his tail Frog rode up to the mouse's hole Rapped the door stout and bold Arrah missie mouse are you in? Yes I am, I sit and spin Arrah missie mouse will you wed? Will you come into my bed? Now uncle rat is not at home Without his leave I'll marry none Uncle rat he then came down In his silk and muslin gown Bring in the table til we dine Change a farthing and bring in wine Just as the talk was getting slack In walked a kittling and a cat Cat seized uncle by the crown Kittling knocked wee mousie down Horsey snail rode up the wall Says the devil is among you all Frog he then rode round the room Just like any sporting groom In came a flock of neighbour's ducks Soon devoured the backelors up Now this whole family went to rack Between the kittling, ducks and cat (From the singing of Annie McKenzie, Boho, Co. Fermanagh, recorded by Sean Corcoran) |
Subject: RE: froggie went a courtin From: Jack Campin Date: 28 Nov 13 - 02:24 PM The frog/mouse connection dates back to Aesop, though his fable goes in different directions. About a generation before Ravenscroft it had been adapted by Robert Henryson, who gave it an interpretation in terms of Orphic mysticism (the frog is the body, the mouse is the soul, and both are swallowed up while tied together in the river of life by a hawk signifying Death). Ravenscroft's story ends badly for all concerned but in a different way from Aesop/Henryson, and doesn't make for such a simple allegory (having the soul and body swallowed up by different supernatural forces would be like Rudolf Steiner's myth of the Eighth Sphere). So maybe it's a parody? If so did Ravenscroft make it up, or was it circulating before his time, and if it was, what on earth was its intention? As a kind of contest of rival myths, it's a bit like the processes Robert Graves imagines in The White Goddess, where proto-Christian monotheists tell parodic reinterpretations of pagan traditions. |
Share Thread: |
Subject: | Help |
From: | |
Preview Automatic Linebreaks Make a link ("blue clicky") |