Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus. A Choice Collection of Pretty Songs and Verses, for the Amusement of All Little Good Children Who can Neither Read nor Run.
Place and Imprint: London: Printed for R. Triphood, 1810.
Edition: First complete edition, preceded by the first edition of 1784; in 1795 there was a second edition that both added and subtracted material; this 1810 edition restores the original text of 1784, the additions of 1795 and adds two parts with new material.
Bibliographical References: NCBEL II, 1764; Bronson, Joseph Ritson, Scholar-at-Arms, pages 756-57.
Condition: Paper with scattered light browning; a fine copy with wide margins.
Book ID: 26794
Physical Description
8vo, modern dark purple morocco by Philip Dusel, gilt decorations and lettering.Comments
A collection of famous children's rhymes, first compiled by Joseph Ritson in 1784. Ritson (1752-1803) the antiquary was interested in the “folklore of the nursery” (Bronson) and brought together 75 rhymes in Gammer Gurton, based in part on the famous Mother Goose’s Melody, also published in 1784, but there are several well known rhymes in Gammer Gurton not in Mother Goose, including "London Bridge is Broken Down," “There was an old woman, she liv’d in a shoe,” “The Man in the Moon came tumbling down,” and “Hark, hark, the dogs do bark.” Antiquary Francis Douce (1757-1834), a friend of Ritson with similar interests, later annotated a copy of the 1795 edition of Gammer Gurton with additional rhymes, and the material from that annotated copy was used to produce this expanded edition in 1810. Another antiquary, Joseph Haslewood, has been given credit for editing this edition. The number of famous rhymes in Gammer Gurton includes "The Cat and the Fiddle," "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep," "Patty Cake" "Jack and Gill," "Dickery, dickery, dock," "Yankey Doodle came to town," and "Tom Thumb the piper's son." In part IV of this edition are the first appearances in print of “Humpty Dumpty” and "Little Bo-Peep.” “Gammer” is an old English word for countrywoman, and the name "Gammer Gurton" was used in a few early English children's rhymes. ESTC does not record the 1784 edition of Gammer Gurton and only five copies of the 1795 edition.Price: $1,250.00
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