"Frog He Would a Wooing Go"

[Jamie123]

There are so many different versions of this song, but basically the story is the same: Froggy is determined to woo Miss Mouse. He gets Rat to act as his "wing man" and the two of them go to the Mouses' house. The engagement is agreed, and they throw a party. Then all of then suffer a violent death, the exact details of which vary between versions.

This is the version I remember from childhood:

Quote

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.

The first time I heard it was at infants' school, when the teacher sang it to us - I think accompanied by the piano. I must have been about five at the time. Us kids sang the "Heigh ho" bits.

When the song ended I was so upset I burst into tears.

Teacher: (Incredulous) What on earth is the matter with you?

Me: *Sob* I didn't want Anthoney Rowley to die! (I had got the idea that Anthony Rowley was the name of the frog.)

Teacher: For goodness sake! It's ONLY A SONG!!!

(Grumbling and murmuring from the other kids about what an idiot I was.)

Well maybe it was only a song. But I liked the image of the rakish frog with his opera hat. I was "invested" in him as a character. And now he was dead! His life was over!!!!

I still don't understand people who call this a "wonderful song from childhood". For me it was a traumatic and nasty song.

 

The late "Anthony Rowley": may he rest in peace...

[Vort]

7 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

There are so many different versions of this song, but basically the story is the same: Froggy is determined to woo Miss Mouse. He gets Rat to act as his "wing man" and the two of them go to the Mouses' house. The engagement is agreed, and they throw a party. Then all of then suffer a violent death, the exact details of which vary between versions.

This is the version I remember from childhood:

The first time I heard it was at infants' school, when the teacher sang it to us - I think accompanied by the piano. I must have been about five at the time. Us kids sang the "Heigh ho" bits.

When the song ended I was so upset I burst into tears.

Teacher: (Incredulous) What on earth is the matter with you?

Me: *Sob* I didn't want Anthoney Rowley to die! (I had got the idea that Anthony Rowley was the name of the frog.)

Teacher: For goodness sake! It's ONLY A SONG!!!

(Grumbling and murmuring from the other kids about what an idiot I was.)

Well maybe it was only a song. But I liked the image of the rakish frog with his opera hat. I was "invested" in him as a character. And now he was dead! His life was over!!!!

I still don't understand people who call this a "wonderful song from childhood". For me it was a traumatic and nasty song.

I weep, in spirit at least, for little Jamie123 and the nasty song about cute anthropomorphic animals being savagely ripped apart. In a weird way, it vaguely reminds me of listening to my fourth-grade teacher reading us from James and the Giant Peach, which as a ten-year-old I found profoundly disturbing. (My 60-year-old self agrees.)

As for the song itself, it appears to be a cautionary tale about the impropriety of otherwise unrelated land vertebrates intimately intermingling. The cat and her kits represent the inexorable hand of destiny meting out justice to those who would tamper with the laws of evolutionary reality. Stick with cousin marriages. In this there is safety and peace.

[LDSGator]

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Edited May 29, 2023 by LDSGator

[NeuroTypical]

12 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

I still don't understand people who call this a "wonderful song from childhood". For me it was a traumatic and nasty song.

One of my treasured possessions is a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes printed in the late '60's.  Some of the most violent and gory stories are in that book.  Life used to be much closer to death than it is today, and it made perfect sense to get the kiddos understanding from the earliest age possible how close.

[Jamie123]

23 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

One of my treasured possessions is a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes printed in the late '60's.  Some of the most violent and gory stories are in that book.  Life used to be much closer to death than it is today, and it made perfect sense to get the kiddos understanding from the earliest age possible how close.

The same could be said of Beatrix Potter. Her characters are cute, but they live in a world of continuous peril. The Flopsy Bunnies barely avoid being cooked by Mr. and Mrs. McGregor. Squirrel Nutkin is on the verge of being skinned alive by Old Brown, but escapes by ripping off his own tail. Mr. Jeremy Fisher is swallowed by a pike, but is spat out when the fish doesn't like the taste of him. And Samuel Whiskers has every intention of eating Tom Kitten, having turned him into a "rolly-poly-pudding".

Nevertheless, the protagonists nearly always escape the jaws of death, usually becoming wiser in the process. It is true Peter Rabbit's mother warns him that his father "had an accident" in Mr. McGregor's garden, in which he was "put in a pie", but since we never actually meet old Mr. Rabbit, this doesn't hit particularly hard: it is a shadow looming on the border of a story in which Peter escapes the same fate (albeit minus his trademark blue jacket). If Peter had been cooked and served up on the McGregors' table with a cheerful "And that was the end of Peter Rabbit!" I wonder if Miss Potter would have been so successful!

The sparrows urge Peter not to give up hope...

Edited May 30, 2023 by Jamie123

[Jamie123]

I almost forgot about this. Jerry's "country and western" uncle tries to sing a version of the song, but barely gets beyond the first verse before his guitar string breaks. He then plucks one of Tom's whiskers to replace it. This happens over and over for the entire cartoon.

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by Jamie123