This Is the Key of the Kingdom

DESCRIPTION: "This is the Key of the Kingdon: In that Kingdom is a city; In that city is a town; In that town there is a street" all leading to "A basket of sweet flowers. The game reverses: "Flower in a basket, basket on the bed... this is the key of the Kingdom"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (de la Mare)
KEYWORDS: playparty nonballad flowers
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #664, pp. 264-265, "(This is the key of the kingdom)"
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 157, "The Key to the Kingdom" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Katherine Briggs, _A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language_, Part A: Folk Narratives, 1970 (I use the 1971 Routledge paperback that combines volumes A.1 and A.2), volume A.2, p. 563, "This Is the Key of the Kingdom" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #1=#483, "This Is the Key" (1 text)
John Speirs, _Medieval English Poetry: The Non-Chaucerian Tradition_, Faber and Faber, 1957, p. 79, "(This is the Key of the Kingdom" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I Got a Key to the Kingdom" (lyric)
NOTES [48 words]: John Speirs, Medieval English Poetry: The Non-Chaucerian Tradition, Faber and Faber, 1957, printed this because he saw a connection with "The Corpus Christi Carol." I see why he says so, but I don't think there is influence. Certainly I don't agree that it is "a striking parallel." - RBW
Last updated in version 7.2
File: CHit483

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