Texas and Southwestern Lore Page: 68

                                
Texas and Southwestern Lore

(3) A fragment of "The Beggars of Ratcliffe Fair" survives
in the manuscripts:
As I was going to Strawberry Fair,
Who do you think that I met there?
There was Dick and Madam Dickie Dick,
Buck and Madam Buckie Buck,
John and Madam Johnniken,
Tom and Madam Tombolin,
Ball and Madam Ballywax,
Bell and Madam Bellicoe,
Limpin' Joe and Jumpin' Joe,
Jolly companions every one.
The opening stanza of the rhyme as given by Halliwell,
Nursery Rhymes of England, [n.d.], pp. 339-341, is this:
As I went to Ratcliffe Fair, there I met with a jolly beggire ,
Jolly ,Begg re, and his name was John, and his wife's name was Jumping
Joan,
So there was John and Jumping Joan,
Merry companions every one.
To each succeeding stanza another beggar and his wife are
added. The beggars' names are different from those intro-
duced in Mrs. Russell's fragment. "Jumpin' Joe" is no doubt
a corruption of the "Jumping Joan" of the old English ver-
sion. Halliwell remarks that "this singular accumulative tale
produces great amusement amongst children when rapidly re-
peated."  In Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1870 ed.),
p. 40, the rhyme is "The Beggars of Coldingham Fair."
(4)  The characters Limpin' Joe and Jumpin' Joe reappear
in the following jingle, the first two lines of which plainly
declare the paternity of college yells:
Hickey, pickey, zickey, zan,
Hollabo, crackebo, mulberry pan,
And when the fat begins to fry,
Old Limpin' Joe and Jumpin' Joe
Ain't at home to eat hot puddin' and pie.
This rhyme is given in Halliwell, No. 277, p. 61, in much
longer form, as

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