Mrs. Bond

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, what (shall we have/have you got) for dinner, (Mrs.) Bond? There's beef in the larder and ducks in the pond." Mrs. Bond offers good meat to her customers, and sends the ostler to kill the ducks. They flee him. She at last goes out herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (Juvenile Amusements No. 48, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food bird commerce
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 62, "Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs Bond?" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #822, pp. 306-307, "(Oh, what have you got for dinner, Mrs. Bond)"
Roud #4580
RECORDINGS:
Roxana Robinson, "Mrs. Bond (Come and Be Killed)" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #702, recorded 10/01/2023)
NOTES [153 words]: Much of this revolves around the duck cry "Dilly, dilly, come and be killed." The Baring-Goulds note that there are actually traditions of such animal calls, though this is the only one I've ever heard quoted in any other context. - RBW
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes: "'Mrs Bond' was originally 'introduced and sung by Mr Bannister Junior in the character of Jerry Sneak', in Foote's 'The Mayor of Garret' (1763). The song was popular, and was immediately issued by rival music publishers ....'" - BS
Derek Piotr's informant Roxana Robinson reported finding this in Anthony Trollope. This is partly true: Trollope reports the duck-call "Will you, will you⁠ -- will you, will you⁠ -- come and be killed." This is from Doctor Thorne, XLIV, "Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning." The book was published in 1858. But it has just the one line; the plot is missing, and in any case, the whole thing is older. - RBW
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File: BGMG822

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