Pop Goes the Weasel
| "Pop! Goes the Weasel" Roud #5249 |
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| Written by | Traditional |
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| Published | 1855 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
"Pop! Goes the Weasel" is a nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5249.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
There are many different versions of the lyrics to the song. In England, most share the basic verse:
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- Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
- Half a pound of treacle.
- That’s the way the money goes,
- Pop! goes the weasel.[1]
Often a second verse is added:
- Every night when I get home
- The monkey's on the table,
- Take a stick and knock it off,
- Pop! goes the weasel.[1]
[edit] Origins
The song is mentioned in November, 1855 in England in the Thirtieth Annual Report Of The National Society For Promoting The Education Of The Poor,[2] including alternative, more wholesome lyrics. A music sheet acquired by the British Library in 1853 described a dance, 'Pop! Goes the Weasel', which was, according to the music sheet, 'An Old English Dance, as performed at Her Majesty's & The Nobilities Balls, with the Original Music'. It had a tune very similar to that used today and only the words "Pop! Goes the Weasel".[1] There is evidence that several people tried to add lyrics to the popular tune. The following verse had been written by 1856 when it was quoted in a performance at the Theatre Royal:
- Up and down the City Road
- In and out the Eagle
- That's the way the money goes
- Pop! goes the weasel.[1]
[edit] American versions
The song seems to have crossed the Atlantic in the 1850s where US newspapers soon afterwards call it "the latest English dance", and the phrase "Pop! goes the weasel" soon took hold.[3] The remaining lyrics were still unstable in Britain, and as a result some of the US lyrics are significantly different and may have an entirely different source, but use the same tune.[3] The following lyrics were printed in Boston in 1858:
- All around the cobbler's house,
- The monkey chased the people.
- And after them in double haste,
- Pop! goes the weasel.[4]
In 1901 in New York the opening lyric was:
- All around the chicken coop,
- The possum chased the weasel.[4]
The most common recent version was not recorded until 1914. In addition to the three verses above, American versions often include some of the following:
- All around the Mulberry Bush,
- The monkey chased the weasel.
- The monkey stopped to pull up his sock, (or The monkey stopped to scratch his nose)
- Pop! goes the weasel.
- Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
- Half a pound of treacle.
- Mix it up and make it nice,
- Pop! goes the weasel.
Contemporary verses in the United States include these:
- All around the mulberry bush (or cobbler's bench)
- The monkey chased the weasel;
- The monkey thought 'twas all in fun, (or "'twas all in good sport") (or "that it was a joke")
- Pop! goes the weasel.
- A penny for a spool of thread,
- A penny for a needle—
- That's the way the money goes,
- Pop! goes the weasel.
- Jimmy's got the whooping cough
- And Timmy's got the measles
- That's the way the story goes
- Pop! goes the weasel.
There are numerous American versions[5] as printed in Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume III, pp. 368-369. Randolph's #556, the A text. Collected 1926 from Mrs. Marie Wilbur of Pineville, Missouri.
[edit] As a singing game
In Britain the rhyme has been played as a children's game since at least the late nineteenth century. The game is played to the "first" verse quoted above. Several rings are formed and they dance around as the verse is sung. One more players than the number of rings are designated as "weasels", all but one standing in the rings. When the "Pop! goes the weasel" line is reached they have to rush to a new ring before anyone else can. The one that fails is eliminated and the number of circles is reduced by one until there is only one weasel left.[1]
[edit] Meaning and interpretations
Perhaps because of the obscure nature of the lyrics there have been many suggestions for their significance, particularly over the meaning of the phrase 'Pop! goes the weasel', including: that it is a tailor's flat iron, a hatter's tool, a clock reel used for measuring in spinning,[6] a piece of silver plate, or that 'weasel and stoat' is Cockney rhyming slang for 'coat', which is 'popped or pawned' to visit or after visiting the Eagle pub.
Other than correspondences, none of these theories has any additional evidence to support it, and some can be discounted because of the known history of the song.[1] Iona and Pete Opie observed that, even at the height of the dance craze in the 1850s no-one seemed to know what the phrase meant.[1]
It is probable that the "Eagle" mentioned in the song's third verse refers to The Eagle freehold pub at the corner of Shepherdess Walk and City Road mentioned in the same verse.[7][8] The Eagle was an old pub in City Road, London, which was re-built as a music hall in 1825, demolished in 1901, and then rebuilt as a public house.[9] This public house bears a plaque with this interpretation of the nursery rhyme and the pub's history.
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g I. Opie and P. Opie, The Singing Game (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 216-18.
- ^ "Thirteith Annual Report Of The ... - Google Boeken". Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=_LYEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
- ^ a b Pop goes the weasel The Phrase Finder. 2004.
- ^ a b W. E. Studwell, The Americana Song Reader (Haworth Press, 1997), pp. 135-6.
- ^ "Pop Goes The Weasel- Version 1". Bluegrass Messengers. http://bluegrassmessengers.com/pop-goes-the-weasel--version-1.aspx. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
- ^ D. D. Volo, Family Life in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century America (Greenwood, 2006), p. 264.
- ^ P. Zwart, Islington; a History and Guide (London: Taylor & Francis, 1973), p. 42.
- ^ David Kemp (1992) The pleasures and treasures of Britain: a discerning traveller's companion p.158. Dundurn Press Ltd., 1992
- ^ "Eagle Tavern / Grecian Theatre, City Road: Playbills and illustrations". Bishopsgate. http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=1062. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
[edit] External links
- Public domain version from 1853 arranged by Charley Twiggs on IMSLP.org
