[Mark Allinson]

Here are a couple from Ulysses (Ch. 14 - "Oxen of the Sun")


THE ARTANE ORPHANS

You big, you bog, you dirty dog!
You think the ladies love you!


THE PRISON GATE GIRLS

If you see kay
Tell him he may
See you in tea
Tell him from me.


------------------
Mark Allinson

[Mary Moore]

Ibitty bibitty
Sibitty sab
Ibitty bib, kanabe
Dictionary
Down the ferry
Shun, shun
the American fun
Born in 1861
____________________________

One potato (pronounced patayda)
Two potato
Three potato
Four

Five potato
Six potato
Seven potato
more

Out goes
Y-O-U

[Golias]

Just today I saw this corrupted version of "William Trimbletoes" on the net:

"William, William Trimble Toes,
he's a good fisherman.
Catch his hands,
put 'em in the pans,
some lay eggs some not,
wire, briar, limber lock
three geese in the flock,
one flew east, a one flew west,
one flew over the cuckoo's nest;
o u t spells out, dirty dish rag
you go out!"

Whereas I learned from my Scotch-Irish elders the following:

"William, William Trimbletoes,
he's a good fisherman,
catches hens, puts them in the pens,
some lay eggs, some none.
Wire, briar, limber, lock,
three geese in a flock.
One flew east, one flew west,
one flew over the cuckoo's nest;
O-U-T spells out goes you,
you old dirty dish rag YOU!"

This shows how folk verse, transmitted orally, can be morphed out of shape and sense. Someone must have understood "catch his hands" for "catches hens" and assumed "pans" for "pens."

G/W

[Janet Kenny]

Dan, Dan,
Dirty old man.
Washed his face in a frying pan.
Combed his hair with the leg of a chair.
Dan, Dan, dirty old man.

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited February 15, 2006).]

[David Anthony]

I'll tell me ma when I get home
The boys won't leave the girls alone
They pull my hair, they steal my comb
But that's all right till I get home
She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast city
She is courting one, two, three
Please, won't you tell me, who is she?


Albert Mooney says he loves her
All the boys are fighting for her
Knock at the door and ring the bell
Hey, my true love, are you well
Out she comes as white as snow
Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes
Our Jenny Murry says she'll die
If she doesn't get the fellow with the roving eye

[Mary Moore]

Sung when jumping rope where one person jumps in as the other jumps out without missing a beat:

On a mountain
stands a lady
who she is
I do not know.

All she wants
is gold and silver;
all she needs
is a nice young man.

So, jump in my ____ (fill in name)
and jump out my _____ (fill in name)

On a mountain (repeat from top)

[David Anthony]

Talk about universality: so many of these are familiar to me from my childhood, but all with variations.
Mary, our playground version of that one went on, in the first stanza,

On a mountain
stands a lady
who she is
I do not know.
I will court her
for her beauty
she must answer
yes or no.

[Janet Kenny]

And that's a lovely old song with a refrain:
"Oh, no John, no John, no John, no."

rotten version of song

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited February 16, 2006).]

[Mary Moore]

Originally posted by Janet Kenny:

I sent a letter to my love
and on the way I dropped it.
Someone must have picked it up
and put it in their pocket.

not you--not you--not you

YOU........

Janet - We sang these lines just before the ones you give above:

A tisket, a tasket,
a green and yellow basket.

[Robert J. Clawson]

Iona and Peter Opie have done a scholarly study of playground rimes for Oxford.

Several verses on the Royal fam.

Worth checking out.

Bob