Trip Upon Trenchers
Trip upon trenchers*,
And dance upon dishes*,
My mother sent me for some barm**, some barm;
She bid me go lightly,
And come again quickly,
For fear the young men should do me some harm.
Yet didn't you see, yet didn't you see,
What naughty tricks they put upon me?
They broke my pitcher
And spilt the water,
And huffed*** my mother,
And chid**** her daughter,
And kissed my sister instead of me.
Notes
*According to The Annotated Mother Goose (1962), by William S. and Ceil Baring-Gould, trenchers means "clogs or wooden boots" and dishes the "high, iron-heeled shoes once worn by countrywomen when working around a farmstead."
**According to the Oxford English Dictionary, barm is "the froth that forms on the top of fermenting malt liquors, which is used to leaven bread".
***To huff someone means to speak arrogantly to them or to bully them.
****Chid is past tense of chide.
Comments
This rhyme can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright.
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