The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98802   Message #1962946
Posted By: Goose Gander
10-Feb-07 - 12:31 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Do Wah Diddy-Military Chant
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Do Wah Diddy-Military Chant
In the free-spirited atmosphere which characterizes this thread, I offer the following . . .

HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE

Hey diddle diddle
The cat scrapped the fiddle
The cow jump'd over the moon
The little dog bayed
To see such sports played
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

"The unmeaning 'Hey Diddle Diddle' is a corruption of the very intelligible (Greek characters I cannot read) which is literally 'Sing words not clear, and Sing words clear'; which which may be compared a Sibylline verse in Greek (more Greek characters I cannot read)."

Source:
Halliwell, Popular Rhymes & Nursery Tales of England (London, Sydney and Toronto: The Bodley Head, 1970; first published in 1849), p.265.