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242

ARCHEOLOGY OF POPULAR PHRASES.

have crept into use in reference to the supposition that the term was an offset of the Latin nervus, and are in truth solecisms [improprieties of language].

OBS:-Nervous, by the less polished part of society, is still pronounced narwoes; and thus in a sounder sense than the nervous of refinement.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS

TO THE

FIRST EDITION

OF

Nursery Rhymes,

As the now unmeaning metrical farragos known by that title; and which, in a greater or less proportion, survive our nursery-days in the memories of us all. That such compositions should have acquired the wide spread they have among us, with the form they now appear in, is repugnant to the nature of language and the feelings of common sense. And I am persuaded they appeared, originally, during the existence of a form of our speech, in which the sound of the form they now present to us carried the sense they were intended to express. In this view, by referring the sound of their present form to words which at that time belonged to our language, I have endeavoured to restore them to the state in which, I believe, they were first produced. In all those I have tried by this test, I have found connected meaning to be the result. It is this form and meaning which is offered in the following pages. If I have succeeded in demonstrating, by the means I mention, the fact to be as I believe, this seeming anomaly in language is no

244

INTRODUCTION TO NURSERY RHYMES.

longer real.

The metre is punctually the same, and the sound scarcely varies in either stage; preserving always that pronunciation of the letters, which belonged to them in their prior currency among us, and which has been pointed out in the beginning of this essay.

The reinstated specimens are not offered as models of composition, nor as the effusions of superior genius, but simply for that which I believe them to have been. To me they seem popular Pasquinades, elicited by the soreness felt by the population at the intrusion of a foreign and onerous church-sway, bringing with it a ministry, to which a goaded people imputed fraud and exaction. As such, these compositions gained that popularity which is now continued to them as traditionary jingles. The disguise of their true form, I believe to be owing to the nature of their original import, and to have been suggested, to those interested in neutralizing such import, by the unparalleled change which was then rapidly supervening in our language. The common origin and nature of both forms rendered such artifice feasible to zeal and ingenuity.

The translations, in the modern form of our language, having neither the metre nor the poignancy of the originals, appear flat and comparatively tame. A glossary is added at the end of this essay to explain the presumed original terms used in the reinstated specimens.

ADDITIONAL INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS

TO THE

PRESENT EDITION.

As one of the explanations of the term KAERLE, KEERLE, given by Kilaan, in his Dictionary, we find what follows: KAERLE. vet. sax; Parùm favens parùmque propitius Saxonum genti: hostis Saxonum nationi. q. e. Carolus, nempè Magnus ille Saxonum domitor acerrimus, qui Saxones subjugatos omni rationi Christianos facere conatus est. Speculum Saxonicum. In other words, "that the term KAERL, besides its appropriate meanings, was used by the ancient Saxons as a trope for their oppressor, Charlemagne; who, not satisfied with having subdued that nation, employed all the means in the hands of a persecuting conqueror to force the dominion of the Roman Catholick Church upon them." So that it is not improbable, but some at least, of the ensuing anti-clerical lampoons took their rise during the career of this bigotted and ferocious tool of the Pope; while in time they obtained a general spread among the subduers and, in part, authors of our race.

The outrageous bearing of the satellites of the Roman Church, under the protection of this imperial scourge, increased from day to day the number and circulation of these popular execrations, till their rifeness produced an urgency to rid the church of this perplexing mode of stigmatising the conduct of its members. The remedy was ingenious, and worthy of the astuteness of friars. An unparalleled and constant corruption of the dialect, in which they were composed, was taken advantage of, and the invective of the lampoon was gradually undermined by the introduction of a harmless, unmeaning, medley of a precisely similar sound and metre, in the latest forms of the altered dialect; till in time the original import was forgotten, and its venom and familiar use replaced by the present Nursery Rhymes. But by whatever hands the scheme was accomplished, its success has been complete, and the ingenuity and dexterity employed conspicuous; for while not a trace of the former meaning has been suffered to remain, not a particle or note of either sound or metre has been lost to the public ear, in which their echos still continue to resound in their various and wonted proportions. To suppose their national prevalence and long standing could have been acquired by the fascination of an unmeaning jingle, seems to me to be to prefer an unaccountable and mystifying anomaly in language to a plain and intelligible rule

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