The Nursery Rhymes of England

								



THIRD CLASS--TALES                                                22


FOURTH CLASS--PROVERBS                                            68


FIFTH CLASS--SCHOLASTIC                                           76


SIXTH CLASS--SONGS                                                82


SEVENTH CLASS--RIDDLES                                           119


EIGHTH CLASS--CHARMS                                             135


NINTH CLASS--GAFFERS AND GAMMERS                                 141


TENTH CLASS--GAMES                                               154


ELEVENTH CLASS--PARADOXES                                        196


TWELFTH CLASS--LULLABIES                                         205


THIRTEENTH CLASS--JINGLES                                        213


FOURTEENTH CLASS--LOVE AND MATRIMONY                             224


FIFTEENTH CLASS--NATURAL HISTORY                                 251


SIXTEENTH CLASS--ACCUMULATIVE STORIES                            282


SEVENTEENTH CLASS--LOCAL                                         299


EIGHTEENTH CLASS--RELICS                                         303


INDEX                                                            317
FIRST CLASS--HISTORICAL.

I.


Old King Cole
Was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Every fiddler, he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers.
Oh, there's none so rare,
As can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three!



    [The traditional Nursery Rhymes of England commence with a

    legendary satire on King Cole, who reigned in Britain, as the

    old chroniclers inform us, in the third century after Christ.

    According to Robert of Gloucester, he was the father of

    St. Helena, and if so, Butler must be wrong in ascribing an

    obscure origin to the celebrated mother of Constantine. King

    Cole was a brave and popular man in his day, and ascended

    the throne of Britain on the death of Asclepiod, amidst

    the acclamations of the people, or, as Robert of Gloucester

    expresses himself, the "fole was tho of this lond y-paid wel

    y-nou." At Colchester there is a large earthwork, supposed to

    have been a Roman amphitheatre, which goes popularly by

    the name of "King Cole's kitchen." According to Jeffrey of

    Monmouth, King Cole's daughter was well skilled in music, but

    we unfortunately have no evidence to show that her father was

    attached to that science, further than what is contained in

    the foregoing lines, which are of doubtful antiquity. The

    following version of the song is of the seventeenth century,

    the one given above being probably a modernization:--



      Good King Cole,