City Lights You Know the City Lyrics
| "Oranges and Lemons" | |
|---|---|
 The original 1875 tenor of St Leonard's, Shoreditch, placed in the aisle when the bells were rehung in 1994 | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | c. 1744 |
"Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English language nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190.
Lyrics [edit]
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's.Yous owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin's.When will you pay me?
Say the bells at Old Bailey.When I grow rich,
Say the bells at Shoreditch.When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.I do not know,
Says the great bell at Bow.Hither comes a candle to light you to bed,
And hither comes a chopper to chop off your caput!
Flake chop chip chop the last homo is dead[ane]
Alternative version [edit]
Gay go upwards, and gay go downward,
To band the bells of London boondocks.Balderdash's eyes and targets,
Say the bells of St. Margret's.Brickbats and tiles,
Say the bells of St. Giles'.Halfpence and farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin'due south.Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's.Pancakes and fritters,
Say the bells of St. Peter's.2 sticks and an apple,
Say the bells at Whitechapel.Pokers and tongs,
Say the bells at St. John's.Kettles and pans,
Say the bells at St. Ann's.Old Male parent Baldpate,
Say the deadening bells at Aldgate.Maids in white Aprons
Say the bells of St Catherine'due south.Yous owe me ten shillings,
Say the bells of St. Helen's.When will you pay me?
Say the bells at Old Bailey.When I grow rich,
Say the bells at Shoreditch.Pray when will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.I'm sure I don't know,
Says the great bell at Bow.Here comes a candle to light you lot to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head.[2]
Section from a 19th-century engraving by Nathaniel Whittock from a cartoon by Antony van den Wyngaerde (c. 1543–50), which shows the towers and spires of many of the churches mentioned in the rhyme
As a game [edit]
Playing the game. Picture by Agnes Rose Bouvier (1842–92)
The song is used in a children's singing game with the aforementioned name, in which the players file, in pairs, through an arch fabricated past ii of the players (made by having the players face each other, raise their arms over their head, and squeeze their partners' hands). The challenge comes during the final lines beginning "Here comes a chopper to chop off your head"; and on the terminal repetition of "chop" in the last line, the children forming the arch driblet their artillery to grab the pair of children currently passing through. These are then "out" and must form another arch next to the existing one. In this manner, the series of arches becomes a steadily lengthening tunnel through which each ready of two players has to run faster and faster to escape in time.[1]
Alternative versions of the game include: children caught "out" by the last rhyme may stand up on a pressure plate[ citation needed ] behind 1 of the children forming the original arch, instead of forming additional arches; and children forming "arches" may bring their easily down for each word of the concluding line, while the children passing through the arches run as fast as they tin to avert being defenseless on the last discussion.[iii]
Origins and significant [edit]
Analogy for the rhyme from The Simply Truthful Mother Goose Melodies (1833)
Various theories have been advanced to account for the rhyme, including: that it deals with child sacrifice; that it describes public executions; that it describes Henry VIII's marital difficulties.[ane] Problematically for these theories the final 2 lines, with their different metre, do not appear in the earlier recorded versions of the rhyme, including the first printed in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), where the lyrics are:
Two Sticks and Apple,
Ring ye Bells at Whitechapple,
Erstwhile Father Bald Pate,
Ring ye Bells Aldgate,
Maids in White Aprons,
Ring ye Bells a Due southt. Catherines,
Oranges and Lemons,
Band ydue east bells at St. Clements,
When will you pay me,
Ring yeast Bells at ye Quondam Bailey,
When I am Rich,
Band ydue east Bells at Fleetditch,
When will that be,
Ring ydue east Bells at Stepney,
When I am Old,
Ring ydue east Bells at Pauls.[1]
There is considerable variation in the churches and lines attached to them in versions printed in the tardily eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which makes any overall meaning difficult to establish. The final two lines of the modern version were commencement collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s.[1]
"Oranges and Lemons" was the title of a foursquare dance, published from the third (1657) edition onwards of The Dancing Principal.[4] Similar rhymes naming churches and giving rhymes to their names can be found in other parts of England, including Shropshire and Derby, where they were sung on festival days on which bells would also take been rung.[1]
The identity of the London churches is not e'er articulate, but the post-obit have been suggested, along with some factors that may take influenced the accompanying statements:[i]
- St. Cloudless's may exist St Clement Danes or St Cloudless Eastcheap, both of which are near the wharves where merchantmen landed citrus fruits.
- St. Martin's may be St Martin Orgar in the City, or St. Martin-in-the-Fields near Trafalgar Square.
- St Sepulchre-without-Newgate (reverse the Old Bailey) is near the Armada Prison where debtors were held.
- St Leonard's, Shoreditch is just exterior the one-time Urban center walls.
- St Dunstan's, Stepney is besides outside the City walls.
- Bow is St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside.
- St. Helen'due south, in the longer version of the song, is St Helen'due south Bishopsgate, in the City.
Tune [edit]
The melody is reminiscent of modify ringing, and the intonation of each line is said to correspond with the distinct sounds of each church'southward bells. Today, the bells of St Clement Danes ring out the melody of the rhyme.[5] Every bit is the case with almost all traditional songs, at that place were pocket-sized variations in the melody. Collector of British folk songs, James Madison Carpenter, recorded ii versions of the vocal in the 1930s which are now available on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website: 1 in Garsington, Oxfordshire[6] and another somewhere in either Yorkshire or Lincolnshire.[7] These recordings show slight melodic and lyrical variations.
Song settings [edit]
A setting of the total Tommy Thumb's Pretty Vocal Book version for choir was written by Bob Chilcott. Entitled "London Bells", information technology is the tertiary move of "Songs and Cries of London Town" (2001).[eight]
Benjamin Till equanimous music based upon the nursery rhyme which was performed in 2009 at St Mary Le Bow Church, London to honour 150 years of the great bell, Big Ben.[9]
In popular culture [edit]
The nursery rhyme appears several times in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.[10] [eleven]
See besides [edit]
- "Dong, Dong, Dongdaemun", Korean nursery rhyme for playing a similar game to "Oranges and Lemons"
- "London Bridge Is Falling Down", another English nursery rhyme for playing a similar game to "Oranges and Lemons"
References [edit]
- ^ a b c d e f chiliad I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Lexicon of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Printing, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 337–8.
- ^ "The Author's Annual with Garrison Keillor, June 29, 2011". Archived from the original on 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2020-12-22 .
- ^ Oranges and Lemons (commodity in H2G2, an editable reference site hosted by bbc.co.uk).
- ^ Playford's Dancing Master: The Compleat Trip the light fantastic Guide. playforddances.com.
- ^ "St Clement Danes, The Strand London WC2 : tourist information from". TourUK. Archived from the original on 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2012-05-04 .
- ^ "Orange and Lemons (VWML Song Index SN19197)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library . Retrieved 2021-02-20 .
- ^ "Bells of St [Clement'southward], The (VWML Song Index SN16826)". The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library . Retrieved 2021-02-xx .
- ^ "Chilcott: Songs and Cries of London Town – Oxford University Printing". OUP. 2001-07-19. Retrieved 2012-05-04 .
- ^ "BBC – Today – Ringing the dust off London's bells". BBC News. 2009-07-10. Retrieved 2012-05-04 .
- ^ Orwell, George. 1984. Kjell Håkansson Förlag. pp. 158, 88, 89, 131. ISBN9789198577815 . Retrieved 15 December 2021.
- ^ Chase, William (2013-05-01). "Orwell'southward Commedia: The Ironic Theology of 19 Fourscore-Four". Modern Philology. 110 (4): 536–563. doi:x.1086/670033. ISSN 0026-8232.
External links [edit]
- BBC School Radio online - Nursery Songs. "Oranges and Lemons" (with animation and lyrics)
- The British Library Sound and Moving Images Catalogue - List Recording 1CD0323981 on Audio CD : Oranges & lemons. Tunes from the collection 'The Dancing Master' (includes notes by Annegret Fischer, and vocal texts)
- Map of the likely church locations
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons
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