Rock-a-bye Baby

Rock-a-bye Baby

"Rock-a-bye Baby" may be an American nursery rhyme and lullaby, whose melody may be a variant of the English satirical ballad Lilliburlero. Originally titled "Hushabye Baby", this nursery rhyme was said to be the first poem written on American soil. Although there is no evidence as to when the lyrics were written, it may date from the 1600s. It is rumoured that it was written by a young pilgrim who sailed to America on the Mayflower. He was said to have observed the way native-American women rocked their babies in birch-bark cradles, which were suspended from the branches of trees, allowing the wind to rock the baby to sleep. However, the branches holding the cradles sometimes had a habit of breaking, causing the cradle to fall and the baby in it to get hurt.Fact|date=July 2007 "Rock-a-bye" as a phrase apparently was first recorded in 1805. The nursery rhyme suggests a falling, apparently related to a terrible accident in 1706 where the Earl of Sandwich's son was tossed without warning from his cradle. The cradle was later found in the Thames River empty and alone.

Another source reports that Effie Crockett, a relative of Davy Crockett, wrote the lyrics in 1872 while babysitting a restless child.Fact|date=July 2007

In Derbyshire, England, local legend has it that the song relates to a local character in the late 1700s, Betty Kenny (Kate Kenyon), who lived with her charcoal-burner husband, Luke, and their eight children in a huge yew tree in Shining Cliff Woods in the Derwent Valley, where a hollowed-out bough served as a cradle. [http://www.ambervalley.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/36409964-6778-498C-8EE0-8925D0D7E227/0/291AmbergateWalkLeaflet.pdf]

Yet another theory has it that the song, like "Lilliburlero", refers to events immediately preceding the "Glorious Revolution". The baby is supposed to be the son of King James II of England, who was widely believed to be someone else's child smuggled into the birthing room in order to provide a Catholic heir for James. The "wind" may be that political "wind" or force "blowing" or coming from the Netherlands bringing James' nephew and son-in-law, William III of England, a.k.a. William of Orange, who would eventually depose King James II in the revolution. The "cradle" is the House of Stuart Stuart monarchy. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199811/ai_n8808905]

The lyrics are:

:"Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop,":"When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,":"When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,":"And down will come baby, cradle and all."

Only the words in the first four lines are supposed to be from the Pilgrim boy in America. Lines 5-12 are a later invention.

The Oxford English Dictionary in its article on the word 'hushaby' gives a nursery book of 1796, "Mother Goose's Melody", as its first source, and quotes these lines from it::"Hush-a-by baby":"On the tree top," :"When the wind blows" :"The cradle will rock."

(Although the Oxford English Dictionary cites only the 1796 edition, "Mother Goose's Melody" was first published in 1765 by the English publisher John Newbery (1713-1767): its first known American imprint was in Boston in 1785.)

The Dictionary's first source for the word 'rock-a-bye' is a children's book published nine years later, "Songs for Nursery" (1805), though the verse differs in its wording:

:"Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green," :"Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen.."

It is unclear though whether these early rhymes were sung to the now-familiar tune. At some time however the tune, the 1796 lyric and the word "Rock-a-bye" must have come together and achieved a new popularity. A possible reference to this re-emergence is in an advertisement in the London 'Times' newspaper of Monday September 19, 1887 for a performance by a minstrel group, which refers to a "new" American song called 'Rock-a-bye':

"Moore and Burgess Minstrels, St James's-hall TODAY at 3, TONIGHT at 8, when the following new and charming songs will be sung...The great American song of ROCK-A-BYE..." (The Moore and Burgess minstrels appear to have been founded as a British offshoot of the successful Christy Minstrels, originally a New York entertainment. The principal mover behind the group was George Washington Moore (1820-1909), known as "Pony" Moore, a New York-born British music hall impresario.)

This song, whether substantially the same as the one quoted above or not, was clearly an instant hit: a later advertisement for the same minstrel company in the same paper's October 13 edition promises that "The new and charming American ballad, called ROCK-A-BYE, which has achieved an extraordinary degree of popularity in all the cities of America will be SUNG at every performance."

An article in the New York Times of August 4, 1891 (p.1) refers to the tune being played at a Baby Parade at Asbury Park, N.J.: "The line of march formed at the Asbury Avenue Pavilion, and, headed by the full band of the United States steamship Trenton playing "Rock-a-Bye Baby," proceeded up the promenade and countermarched, returning in files of four." Clearly by this date the song was well established in America: how much earlier it first emerged there, in the form we know it today, is still to be determined.

Alternate Lyrics as shown in "The Real Mother Goose" published in 1916::"Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green;":"Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen;":"And Betty's a lady, and wears a gold ring;":"And Johnny's a drummer, and drums for the king." [http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/rock.asp]

ee also

*Lullaby
*"Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"
*Eugene Field, "Rock-a-Bye Lady"

External links

* [http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/rockaby.htm Rock-a-bye-baby]
* [http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/rock.asp]


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