dmcg
| Posted - 29 Oct 02 - 12:47 pm
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Little Sir Hugh [Hugh of Lincoln]
It rains, it rains in Merry Lincoln
It rains both great and small,
When all the boys come out to play
To play and toss their ball.
They toss'd their ball so high, so high
They toss'd their ball so low;
They toss'd it over the Jew's garden,
With all the fine Jews below.
The first that came out was a Jew's daughter
Was dressed all in green;
Come in, come in, my little Sir Hugh
You shall have your ball again.
O no, O no, I dare not a-come
Without my playmates too;
For if my mother should be at the door
She would cause my poor heart to rue.
The first she offer'd him was a fig,
The next a finger thing,
The third a cherry as red as blood
And that enticed him in.
She set him up in a gilty chair,
She gave him sugar sweet.
She laid him out on a dresser board
And stabbed him like a sheep.
And when the school was over,
His mother came out for to call,
With a little rod under her apron
To beat her son withal.
His mother she went to the Jew's wife's house
And knocked loud at the ring:
O little Sir Hugh if you are here
Come let your mother in.
He is not here the Jew's wife said,
He is not here today;
He's with his schoolfellows on the green
Keeping this high holiday.
My head is heavy I cannot get up,
My grave it is so deep;
Besides a penknife sticks into my heart,
So up I cannot get.
Go home, go home, my mother dear,
And prepare me a winding sheet;
For tomorrow morning before it is day
Your body and mine shall meet.
And lay my prayerbook at my head,
And my grammar at my feet,
That all me schoolfellows as they pass by
May read them for my sake.
Source: One Hundred English Folksongs, Ed C Sharp, ISBN 0-486-23192-5
Notes:
Cecil Sharps notes follow:
Versions of this ballad, with tunes, may be found in Miss Mason's Nursery Rhymes (P. 46); Motherwell's Minstrelsy (p. 51, tune No. 7); Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 264); and in Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques (pp. 3 and 46). For versions without tunes, see Percy's Reliques (volume i, P. 27); Herd's Scottish Songs (volume i, p. I S 7); Jamieson's Popular Ballads (volume i, p. 151); Notes and Queries (Series i); and Child's English and Scottish Ballads (No. 155). The story of this ballad is closely conneded with that of the carols---The Bitter Withy " and ,,The Holy Well' (see the Journal of the Folk Song Society, volume iv, PP. 3 5-46). The events narrated in this ballad were supposed to have taken place in the 13th century. The story is told by a contemporary writer in the annals of Waverley, under the year 1255. Little Sir Hugh was crucified by the Jews in contempt of Christ with various preliminary tortures. To conceal the act from the Christians, the body was thrown into a running stream, but the water immediately ejected it upon dry land. It was then buried, but was found above ground the next day. As a last resource the body was thrown into a drinking-well; whereupon, the whole place was filled with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odor that it was clear to everybody that there must be something holy in the well. The body was seen floating on the water and, upon its recovery, it was found that the hands and feet were pierced with wounds, the forehead lacerated, etc. The unfortunate Jews were suspected. The King ordered an inquiry. Eighteen Jews confessed, were convictted, and eventually hanged.
A similar tale is told by Matthew Paris (ob. 1259), and in the Annals of Burton (13th or 14th century). Halliwell, in his Ballads and Poems re speding Hugh of Lincoln, prints an Anglo-French ballad, consisting of ninety-two stanzas. which is believed to have been written at the time of, or soon after. the event. No English ballad has been recovered earlier than the middle of the 18th century.
Bishop Percy rightly concludes "the whole charge to be groundless and malicious." Murders of this sort have been imputed to the Jews for seven hundred and fifty years or more; and similar accusations have been made in Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe even in the i9th century-and as late as 1883. Child sums up the whole matter by saying, "These pretended child-murders, with their horrible con sequences, are only a part of a persecution which, with all its moderation, may be rubricated as the most disgraceful chapter in the history of the hurrian race.
I have discovered three other versions of this ballad besides the one in this volume. The words in the text have been compiled from these sources. The singer learned the ballad fi.om her mother, who always sang the first two lines as follows:
Do rain, do rain, American corn,
Do rain both great and small.
Clearly, " American corn " is a corruption of " In merry Lincoln; " and I hazard the guess that the " Mirry-land toune " in Percy's version is but another corruption of the same words.
The tune in the text is a close variant of "Tomorrow is St Valentine's Day" (Chappell's Popular Music, p 227)
Database entry is here
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dmcg
| Posted - 29 Oct 02 - 01:03 pm
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From The Oxford Companion to English Literature, �© Margaret Drabble and Oxford University Press 1995 :
Hugh of Lincoln
Little Saint (?1246-55), a child supposed to have been crucified by a Jew named Copin or Joppin at Lincoln, after having been starved and tortured. The body is said to have been discovered in a well and buried near that of Grosseteste in the cathedral, and to have been the cause of several miracles. The story, a frequent theme for poets, is referred to by Chaucer (The Prioress?s Tale?, Canterbury Tales, 16) and by Marlowe in The Jew of Malta. See also the ballad of The Jew?s Daughter? in Percy?s Reliques.
From BBC.CO.UK Religious Pages there is this 'timeline'
| 1253 | The Jew Badge: Henry III places restrictions on Jews including the requirement to wear a special Jew Badge to keep Christians and Jews apart. | | 1255 | Another ?blood libel? case against the Jews, who are accused of the ritual murder of Little St Hugh of Lincoln for religious purposes. The ninety-one accused are held in the Tower of London and hanged the following year. | | 1272 | Edward I proclaims a total ban on the money-lending activities of Jews.. | | 1290 | Edward I expels Jews in their entirety from England. They will not return legally for nearly 400 years. | | 1386 | Chaucer immortalises the blood libel case of Little St Hugh in The Prioress?s Tale (see 1928 for the final retraction of the accusations).. | | 1928 | Blood libel retracted in Lincoln Cathedral(see 1144 and 1255).
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John Arnold, of the University of East Anglia disagrees on the final outcome of the persecution:
1255, Little Hugh of Lincoln. Another child found murdered - this time a boy of eight or nine, kidnapped and starved. All the Jews of the Kingdom asked to attend. Circumcised, beaten, teeth broken and nose cut. Crowned with thorns, pierced by nails, crucified and speared, then cast into a pit. A Jew 'confessed' to the crime, and was put to death. Another 91 were arrested, and eighteen of them executed.
Edited By dmcg - 10/29/2002 3:23:53 PM
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