Episode 6: Hickory, Dickory, Dock

 In Episode 6: Hickory Dickory Dock - Another nursery about sheep? Really? Gina talks about the nursery rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock" which has a lot of rumored theories of its meaning, but really little academic research about it. She discusses some unsubstantiated theories including pre-Modern English roots and includes some fun old audio from 1889. 

Transcript

Gina: 1:07

Hello, and welcome to episode number six of a A TIsket Tasket podcast. I'm your host, Gina. And today we will be talking about the nursery rhyme, Hickory Dickory Dock to start off with this nursery rhyme has a round folk song index number of 6,489. Now, first of all, I'm really glad I did Baa Baa Black Sheep last week. And if you haven't listened to it, I suggest you take a listen now, because surprisingly, this nursery rhyme has something in common with last week's.$And well, that really surprised me. Second of all, this was yet another nursery rhyme that surprised me in that it was quite difficult to research. There really. I wouldn't say there wasn't. Much to research about it, but it was very difficult to pin down facts number one. Number two there really wasn't much about speculation. And number three, there was very little if at all, any research done on the melody of the song. And so for those three reasons, I was kind of stumped and I didn't know if I had enough to really make an episode. Well, that's not true. There's a number of interesting facts about this nursery rhyme. It's just. A lot brevity. So, I guess we'll see. To start off with the earliest printed publication of this nursery rhyme appears in a well-known book that I've talked about and probably every single episode of this podcast so far, and that is Tommy Thumbs Pretty Song Book published in 1744. The opening line is Hickory Dickory Dock spelled H I C K E R E D I C K E R E. D O C K. And that has some relevance in what I talk about in a minute. The next recorded version appears in Mother Goose's Melody in 1765 and uses Dickory Dickory Dock spelled D I C K E R Y. And again, appears in, well, when I talk about a lot in that is A. H. Rosewig's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs in 1870, which is the American version. And it is the first that I could find version that appears with a score. So I'm assuming that we have yet again, A. H. Rosewig to thank for the score for this melody. However. I suspect that this rhyme was repeated with a similar melody, even before that, because it's about a clock and continually throughout researching the song makes the rhyme in the same tempo as a clock ticking. So I am assuming A. H. Rosewig being the famous composer that he was use that as inspiration with the modern melody that we have. So I'll go ahead and play a creative commons version of Hickory Dickory dock with a modern twist. It is used as both a counting rhyme as well as a way for children to learn animals. So here we have the modern take of Hickory Dickory Dock Now, this is a little bit different than what I learned back in the day back. Geez, 35 years ago. But. Again, it teaches children to count and it teaches children. Action and animals. But the earliest version of this song I found a recorded audio recorded was from the astounding 1889. And this is super cool. It's actually an Edison talking reel now, if you don't know what that is, Edison was very interested in audio and visual. He was really interested in creating movies. And so he was one of the first inventors to come up with audio recording as well. And he created. Essentially the precursor of a record. And the national History Park of New Jersey, their website actually shows this real and the contraption in which it plays and I'll link it to the website. And they happened to find this recording. In an experimental shop room on the third floor of the Edison laboratory. It's an experimental doll mechanism. And it has recorded on it and Hickory Dickory dock and I'll play it. It sounds extraordinarily Erie. So if you could imagine a doll from 1889, singing this to a child, I personally think I would have nightmares. But here we have the very short recording of Hickory Dickory dock recorded. By Thomas Edison's laboratory in 1889. Pretty eerie. Isn't it. So, again, this is really cool that Edison was thinking ahead and thinking of this invention, that he could create an audio recording and put it in a doll. And if you look at dolls today and you look at toys today, that's it's a at an invention we use today and here was a man thinking about it from 1889. Pretty awesome. Now let's talk about the meaning of Hickory Dickory dock, which is where I found the most research. But yet again, nothing. Really. Substantial or factual. So the first one I found, which is. What I really just found hearsay on and not even an academic article or professor talking about it. Opie and Opie don't even reference it in their the Oxford English dictionary of nursery rhymes. And that is that this song could be about all of our Cromwells son who succeeded him as Lord protector. Of England. So Oliver Cromwell was Lord protector of Britain in 1649 is 1658 and then gave it over to his son. Appointed his son, Richard. But Richard was known apparently to be very timid and mouse like apparently. He had a nickname. Of a Tumbledown Dick because of his aburbt fall from power and Because the Monarch was restored under king Charles, the second in 16 60. There is supposedly it's this hidden second verse of Hickory Dickory Dock that refers to the man and brown who soon, brought him down, which is supposedly about king Charles, the Second. But again, I couldn't find this anywhere. So if you have any record that I could use to back up my claim, I would really appreciate it. But that's one such origin that could be the origins of Hickory Dickory Dock Moving on the second origin could be referencing the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral. Because this astounding clock has a hole in the door below the face of the clock. For cattle live that's right. A cat. And why does the cat live there? Because apparently the Exeter Cathedral had a mouse problem in the mice would run up these very long ropes that ran the clock. And so a cat lived in this clock and would catch the mice. And so when we think about the lyrics of Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock, the clock struck one. In down, he run Hickory Dickory Dock. This could easily reference this. So the Exeter Cathedral or the cathedral church of St. Peter and Exeter was built in 10 50, which was the seat of the Bishop of Devon it went back from Saxon style to Norman style church. And sadly, this podcast doesn't talk about early English history of the Saxon versus Norman, or even versus the Picts but this Cathedral was considered complete in 1400. This clock is famous because it's an astronomical one and it was built between the 14th and 16th century. And I'll post a picture of this clock on the blog it's really neat looking. The lower dials built in 1484 and the upper was finishing 1760. And this is an interesting take on this nursery rhyme because of the next historical underpinning that could be about Hickory Dickory Dock. In that is. This nursery rythme may very will be about sheep. Who would've thought. And that is it could be referencing. Counting, but not in traditional English, but income Cumbric from the Westmoreland shepherds. So Cumbric is a variety of the common Britannic languages spoken in the early Middle Ages, which we know as the Dark Ages. Between late fifth century in the tenth century. So if this was a well-known counting rhyme, even using a different language that what we know as modern English. Well, this definitely surpasses Baba Black Sheepas being the oldest nursery rhyme in my research from the 12th century. It's crazy to think that this nursery rhyme in some form could have been even spoken as early as the fifth century. So before Britain became britton Westmoreland shepherd. So you use the comfort language and old north counties, which included what's Marlin Cumberland in the Northern lake and chair among others. It is related to old Welsh and is thought to have God extinct in me 12th century. So if we go back to talking about the Exeter Cathedral, If we consider the song referencing the Cumbric language, which went extinct in the 12th century and the clock was built in the 15th century. In the 18th century, it puts doubt on the fact that the song is about the clock. However, just because the language is extinct doesn't mean it has completely gone for the world. A perfect example of this is Latin. And I really wish I had time to talk about how modern English became moderate English. Well, we don't have time to talk about that. A, I mean, I took an entire course about that and when I was in college and B that's not what this. Not what this podcast is about, but. You have to think about the fact that English didn't really become English until really the formation of the Anglican church. So Anglican spoke English, which became English. So even before the UK became the UK in Britain became Britain. There is all these different subsets of languages that was being spoken all around the continent. And I just think it's fascinating that all of that came to be, or it came to become English and I'm sure that words still exist out there. That use some of these old or extinct languages. And so it's definitely not a far fresh idea that a nursery rhyme using old Cumbria still exists. So why could this be using the Cumrbic language? Well, sheep herders. In the middle ages. And last week, if you haven't listened to last week's episode, I highly encourage you to do so. I talked about how the English wool trade was incredibly important to the people of England. Well, people had to, especially young shepherds had to learn to count and young shepherds counted to the number 20 to count off a score of sheep. Hevera or Hickory meant eight. Devora or Dickory meant nine and Dick meant ten. And so Hickory Dickory Dock. I imagine perhaps even an earlier version. It went through one through maybe 24 where children would learn to count so they could go out. And count the sheep. So my mind was completely blown because I had no idea that Hickory Dickory dock could be about, of all things, sheep. So Hickory Dickory dock is not only a nursery rhyme, but also it has been referenced in popular culture. If you're an Agatha Christie fan, you probably know this because she borrowed the name for one of her Poirot mysteries. Even though it's really only mentioned as a road in the story. And in L Frank Baum's first children's book and he went on to write A Wizard of Oz. And First children's book, Mother Goose and Pros and 1897. He told a parable of a mama mouse in her three children. Hickory Dickory and Dock and I just realized you can probably hear Gandalf my Giant Great Pyrnees and he's snoring in the background. I'm not even going to edit that out. I hope you enjoy. So, what have we learned about Hickory Dickory Dock? First we know that it's first appears in written publication. Very commonly and Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, which I referenced often in 1744. I suspect that it's first melody appeared in his National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs, which he published in Philadelphia. We know that it is a counting rhyme. There are some speculations that it is a counting rhyme that has to do with Cumbric and Westmoreland shepherds counting their score of sheep. We also may think that this nursery rhyme references an astronomical clock, and Exeter in which this clock has a door for a cat to live in to chase off those pesky mice, eating through the rope that runs the clock. It may have to do with Oliver Cromwell's son who failed to be the Lord Protector of England in the 17th century. We know that Thomas Edison recorded or had someone recorded his Edison cylinder, a very eerie version of this song. And we know that this nursery rhyme is still used today. However I repeat. There really are very little facts of where this nursery rhyme came from. And somehow I'm left with more questions than answers. So if you have the burning desire to research this for yourself, please drop me a line at info@atiskettasketpodcast.com or visit my website at atiskiettasketpodcast.com if you'd like to support what I do here and like, to hear more content, feel free to support me. You can click any link on my website. That'll go to my PayPal or Pateron. I really love what I do here. I really love talking to you about nursery rhymes and lately I've talked to some friends face to face who've listened to this. So I personally want to thank you my very dear and close friends that have listened to this and given me some great feedback. And it really gives me the passion to keep going and talking about this. So I love you all very much.. And I really appreciate it. Lastly has my outro song. I found a really fun jazzy version of Hickory Dickory Dock that I'll play for you that I really hope that you enjoy. You can find it's referenced in many more on my blog. So please stay tuned. Tune in next week where I will continue to talk about the weirdness. Of nursery rhymes.