“A Frog He Would A-wooing Go”, “Georgie Porgie” and the Meaning of Roly-Poly
A Connection Between A Frog He Would A-wooing Go and Georgie Porgie, Which Involves the Meaning of Rowley Powley.
I’ve always been fond of the song A Frog He Would A-wooing Go, which seems to have originated in Scotland in the sixteenth century. There are countless variations of this old favorite – most Americans know it as Froggy Went A Courtin’, He Did Ride, which has been recorded by Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, among others.
Here’s the best known British version:
A Frog He Would A-wooing Go
A frog he would a-wooing go,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
A frog he would a-wooing go,
Whether his mother would let him or no.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.So off he set with his opera hat,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
So off he set with his opera hat,
And on the road he met with a rat,
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.Pray, Mr. Rat will you go with me?
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
Pray, Mr. Rat will you go with me,
Kind Mrs. Mousey for to see…
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.They came to the door of Mousey’s hall,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
They gave a loud knock, and they gave a loud call.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.Pray, Mrs. Mouse are you within?
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
Oh yes, kind sirs, I’m sitting to spin.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.Pray, Mrs. Mouse will you give us some beer?
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
For Froggy and I are fond of good cheer.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.Pray, Mr. Frog will you give us a song?
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
Let it be something that’s not very long.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.Indeed, Mrs. Mouse, replied Mr. Frog,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
A cold has made me as hoarse as a dog.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.Since you have a cold, Mr. Frog, Mousey said,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
I’ll sing you a song that I’ve just made.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.But while they were all a-merry-making
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
A cat and her kittens came tumbling in.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.The cat she seized the rat by the crown,
Heigh ho! says Rowley,
The kittens they pulled the little mouse down.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.This put Mr. Frog in a terrible fright,
Heigh ho! says Rowley.
He took up his hat and he wished them goodnight.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.But as Froggy was crossing over a brook,
Heigh ho! says Rowley.
A lily white duck came and gobbled him up.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.So there was the end of one, two, three,
Heigh ho! says Rowley.
The rat,
the mouse, and the little froggy.
With a Rowley,
powley, gammon, and spinach,
Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.
Monique, my colleague at Mama Lisa’s World en français, has been translating many old songs into French. When she came to A Frog He Would A-wooing Go she was unsure what to make of “rowley powley” and she asked me what it meant. Hum, good question I thought. I really didn’t know.
When I thought about it, at first it seemed “With a Rowley, powley, gammon, and spinach” was just a nonsense call or phrase. Was that all there was to it? I decided to investigate.
So, I looked up “gammon” which is also not a common word, at least not in the States. I found out it refers to meat from the hind leg of a pig, often cured. It seems this “nonsense phrase” is talking about food.
Next I took out my Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes by Iona and Peter Opie to see if they refer to “rowley powley”. That’s usually the first book I’ll refer to when there’s a question about a nursery rhyme. Here’s what it had to say:
A Notes and Queries correspondent remembered seeing ‘rowley powley’ given as a name for a plump fowl.
This fit in with the food theme. Next I wanted to see if I could verify what they said. I typed “rowley powley” into Google and found a surprising connection to another popular rhyme: Georgie Porgie
Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry;
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away.
It turns out Georgie Porgie was originally called Rowley Powley. (The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes confirms this.)
The rhyme was first recited as…
Rowley Powley, pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry;
When the girls begin to cry,
Rowley Powley runs away.
Interesting… I decided to go back to Google and type in “rowley powley” again. This time I found the quote…
“Here’s your large Rowley Powlies, no more than Six-pence a Peck . . . Rowley Powley, jolly Pease.” -Cries of London (1784)
The quote was on a site called Food Reference Website under food quotes for “peas”. I wrote to James T. Ehler, the publisher of the site, to see if he knew anything more about “rowley powley”. He sent me back the definitions given in the Oxford English Dictionary, pointing out that the quote on his website refers to peas. Peas could also fit into a food theme.
In the definitions of “rowley powley” in the OED I noticed another way to spell it, “roly-poly”, which is in use in modern English. That changed the way I thought of the phrase.
I had thought it rhymed with towel. But seeing it spelled as “roly-poly”, would make it rhyme with roll or bowl. This changes things a little since “roly-poly” can mean short and plump, usually referring to a child. I believe Georgie Porgie can also mean the same thing in modern day usage.
The OED is amazingly comprehensive! Here are some other definitions for “rowley powley” it has, which are interesting in the context of the song A Frog He Would A-wooing Go and the nursery rhyme Georgie Porgie:
1) A rascal (mentioned in the year 1601) – could work for Georgie Porgie – since he’s kissing the girls and running away.
2) The name of different games based on rolling a ball (referred to in 1713) – could work for Georgie Porgie, only because it’s a nursery rhyme and it’s based on playing. I find this interpretation unlikely.
3) Short and pudgy, usually referring to kids. This could fit Georgie Porgie too, seeing as the current day usage of both “roly-poly” and “Georgie Porgie” can refer to a plump child.
4) A funny name for a pea – again, it could work for A Frog He Would A-wooing Go since it’s in the context of other foods.
5) “A kind of pudding, consisting of a sheet of pastry covered with jam or preserves, formed into a roll and boiled or steamed.” (Quoted directly from the OED, they found it mentioned this way in print as early as 1841). This definition obviously fits “Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie” and here we go with a food reference again, so it would fit in with A Frog He Would A-wooing Go too.
Starting with A Frog He Would A-wooing Go, let’s go back to the original context… “With a Rowley, powley, gammon, and spinach”. We’re left with the following choices:
1) A plump fowl
2) Peas
3) The pudding dish
And for Georgie Porgie, we’re left with the following possibilities:
1) A rascal
2) A short, plump kid
3) A kind of pudding
I’m not sure how we can determine which definition to use for A Frog He Would A-wooing Go, but for Georgie Porgie, “rowley, powley” could well be playing on words and mean all of the above.
In the end, as with so many nursery rhyme mysteries, we can only surmise. Maybe someday someone will invent a time machine and we’ll be able to travel back in time and find out for sure!
Many thanks to James T. Ehler from the Food Reference Site and Jason Pomerantz for help with this investigation.
Here’s a recipe for Roly-Poly Jam Pudding.
November 11th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
I have heard (though I can’t corroborate it) that the “Georgie Porgie” of the later version referred to George III, and “made them cry” would mean making the girls enceinte.
November 13th, 2005 at 10:59 pm
They often can’t verify it when a nursery rhyme is about a specific king, and I believe that’s the case with Georgie Porgie.
When I come across more info, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, if anyone else knows, please comment.
Thanks for writing!
Lisa
December 18th, 2005 at 8:51 pm
Peter wrote me…
“Some fascinating research! My mother, back in the 1940s, used to cook roly-poly pudding – a steamed rather substantial doughy concoction, white in colour (the ingredients having been bound up in a tea cloth), but it seems to have disappeared from the scene in recent years.”
Peter Rowland (Who has cause to remember the name of this particular sweet.)
July 5th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Wouldn’t it make sense that a Roly-Poly as a plump fowl would indeed make girls cry if he pecked them? And, as the story goes, would run away from the boys (better known for carrying rocks and sticks)? Puddin’ and pie would perhaps allude to Roly-Poly’s normal demise as a dinner pie. Just a thought.
July 13th, 2006 at 10:27 am
I have always belieieved it was to do with Charles II and his disreputable friends. There is the Rowley Mile at Newmarket Race Course (Suffolk) the Poleys are a 6oo year-old Suffolk Family, Gammon refers to the BAcons – another Suffolk Family and Spinach to is Green – a name that can be found anywhere! , So I wonder why I can’t find any reference to the rhymes origin apart from yours!!
September 28th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Jennifer’s theory sounds like a solid explaination to me. Certainly Charles II was known as “Old Rowley” and could have been described as a frog, for his time in France, French mother, Catholic tendencies etc. It would also fit with the cited change to Georgie Porgy who was almost certainly George IV and who had a similar reputation with women.
If so, this song probably has a political story behind it (beyond a general satire of Charles II and his gang. It would be good to know who Mr Rat ,Mrs. Mouse and the duck were. I guess the cat and kittens where the Queen and his legitimate children.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Ah it seems it may originally been a comment on an even earlier royal relationship:
http://cjtm.icaap.org/content/18/v18art6.html
This site shows that it started as a comment on Elizabeth I and the Duc d’Alencon.
“Satirists have used animal rhymes and fables in every age, and versions of some nursery songs have historical meaning. One seems to have had political significance during the reign of Elizabeth I. The Queen had a custom of giving her courtiers animal nicknames. Sir Walter Raleigh was known as her fish, Leicester her lap dog, and at the time of her proposed marriage to the Duc d’Alencon, Simier, the French ambassador was her ape, and the Duc himself her frog.
The notion of this foreign marriage was highly unpopular. The licensing of the song in 1580 directly after the affair had blown over seems appropriate.”
I suspect that this is the explaination of its birth (which is also linked to the earliest nown example of the use of “frog” for a Frenchman) and that it was then later recycled as a satire on Charles II.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:18 am
I have come across magistrate records in 18th century Essex (UK) punishing men for playing ‘rowley powley’ in local pubs. So it must have been some kind of rowdy game. I’ll see if I can find out more…
January 12th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Hi all
I love this website! I love the Froggie song and all the many versions I have heard – from Britian and from Southern USA and more. I wanted to say that I sing a silly version of it on my own website. I made it quite simple because I worked with preschoolers for many years and many children did not come into my classroom speaking English, so I tried to make the words understandable for them. Parents told me their children loved my songs and were asking for them and listening constantly, thereby learning more English words in a fun way.
(I had tapes and CD’s made) I also made my own illustrations for my songs, so the kids could turn the pages of each verse like a book. I loved being with kids and I still love it!
fyi – website is “jollytales.com” but it’s not set up to buy things, so the dot com is silly too!
Bye now!
RAquel
January 11th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Interesting discussion on the possible meanings of “rowley-powley” or “roly-poly”!
Music and songs reveal much about a culture, and nursery rhymes can often be used as satire, or satirical songs become nursery songs once they have lost their relevance and bite.
The different versions of “Froggy” could easily have been used to poke fun at both Elizabeth I and Charles II. While many sources like to speculate that the “Froggy” song originated during the Virgin Queen’s reign, the earliest reference I have been able to find comes from the time of Henry VIII. In 1549, a reference is made in a Scottish book to the song “The frogge came to the myl dur.”
This makes it a very old song, and one easily adapted for political satire, perhaps for several British monarchs.
June 13th, 2009 at 5:13 am
In studying Suffolk local and church history, I came across the records of the Poly family. There is the suggestion that “Rowley, Powley, Gammon and Spinach” actually refers to the distinquished Suffolk families of Rowley, Poly (now Weller Poly), Bacon and Greene. It seems a plausible explanation and an avenue worth investigating