Detail of Froggy and his bride, oil on linen, 2004
Froggie went a-courting and he did ride, um hm.
Froggie went a-courting and he did ride, um hm.
Froggie went a-courting and he did ride,
a sword and a pistol by his side.
Froggie went a-courting and he did ride, um hm.
He rode up to Miss Mousy's door,
a place he'd often been before.
He sat Miss Mousy on his knee,
said, "Miss Mousy, will you marry me?"
"Without my Uncle Rat's consent, (unh-unh!)
I would not marry the president.
The Uncle Rat has bought her gown,
its a piece of fur from an old greyhound.
"Oh, where will the wedding supper be?"
Way down yonder in a holler tree.
The first to come was a little white moth,
she spread out the table cloth.
"Oh, what will the wedding supper be?"
"Dogwood berries and catnip tea."
The next to come was a Bumblebee,
who danced a jig with a nimble Flea.
The next to come was a Big Black Bug.
he danced a jig on the living room rug.
The next to come was a Big Black Snake,
he ate up all the wedding cake.
The next to come was a Big Black Cat,
he ate up old Uncle Rat.
The Frog and the Mouse, they sailed to France.
That was the end of that romance.
................................................................................
This is not exactly the ballad that my mother, Cebah Dowlen Dutton sang to me...in
her version the Frog knocks so hard on the door that he makes it roar, then
asks "Miss Mousy, are you within?" "Yes, kind Sir, I sit to spin." I really
don't know why I didn't pick those verses up. The ones I usually sing must have
come from my father, Joe Dutton, instead.
It is an old song, mentioned in a 1580 register as the "Moste Strange Wedding
of the Frogge and the Mowse." During the Elizabethan Era, the ballad was adapted
as a political satire skewering the proposed marriage between the mousy virgin
queen and the French ambassador Duc d'Alencon Simier, whom she had nicknamed
her "frog."
My ex-sister-in-law's father sang the version with the "Ki-mi-keery-mitcha-cambo,
Rattle-attle-attle-bottle-attle-bottle-inkum" refrain, fairly common in Kentucky.
In the Ozarks there is a version that begins thus:
The lady Mouse lived in the mill, oh kitty alone.
The lady Mouse lived in the mill, kitty alone and I.
The lady Mouse lived in the mill,
The gentleman frog lived in the well.
Rock to my carry, kitty alone, kitty alone and I.
He went to court her for his bride,
sword and a pistol by his side. etc.
The tune to the "kitty alone" version is fun to sing. There is a recording of
it by Alan Lomax on "Sounds of the South."
Detail of the wedding guests, oil on linen, 2004
Detail from The Frog's Courtship, oil on linen, 2004