Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

DESCRIPTION: "Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, Here we go round... So early in the morning." "This is the way we wash our clothes." "This is the way we bake the bread." And so forth, through many household tasks
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1834 (Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame)
KEYWORDS: work nonballad playparty
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Ont) New Zealand
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Wolford-ThePlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 56-57=Wolford/Richmond/Tillson-PlayPartyInIndiana, pp. 215-216, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 38-40, "Mulb'ry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry-SongsSungInTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 244, (no title) (1 short text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, pp. 110-111, "Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 66, "The Mulberry Bush" (5 texts)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #23, "We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #638, p. 253, "(Here we go round the bramble bush)"
Solomon-ZickaryZan, pp. 16-17, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 61, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 126, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 28-29, "(Here we go round the mulberry bush)" (1 text, opening with "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" and continuing with "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes")
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Emelyn E Gardner, "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan," Vol. XXXIII, No. 128 (Apr 1920), #33 pp. 113-114, "Mulberry-Bush" (2 texts, 1 tune)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, F.W. Waugh, "Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario," Vol. XXXI, No. 119 (Jan 1918), #637 p. 54 "The Mulberry-Bush" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 258, 393, 521, 523, 529, "Here We Go 'round the Mulberry Bush" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 378, "Mulberry Bush"
DT, MULBERBS
Roud #7882
RECORDINGS:
Lorraine Hammond, "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (Piotr-Archive #693, recorded 10/01/2023)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "She Washes the Dishes Three Times a Day" (form)
cf. "The Old Soap-Gourd" (form)
cf. "A Young Lady Sat Down to Sleep" (lyrics, form)
SAME TUNE:
This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes (File: Br3096)
Gathering Nuts in May (File: R561)
Lazy Mary (She Won't Get Up) (File: R396)
Silly Old Man (File: OpGa040)
Days of the Week (I) (File: OpGa067)
Mary Was a Bad Girl (File: OpGa071)
There Was a Young Couple (File: OpGa107)
Institute Motion Song ("This is the way my money goes, money goes, money goes") (Harbin-Parodology, #43, p. 17)
NOTES [104 words]: Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland reports this to the tune "Nancy Dawson," also used for "Nuts in May," and they do use the same tune in my experience, though I've never heard it called "Nancy Dawson."
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons mentions a suggestion by R. S. Duncan that this was about Wakefield Prison and the female prisoners there, who had a mulberry tree -- but this really strikes me as a children's song, not some sort of political piece!
There is another song, indexed as "This Is the Way We Wash Our Clothes," which shares lyrics and feeling with this. But it's a doll-dancing song; I've very tantatively split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Lins038

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