Charley Barley

DESCRIPTION: "Charley Barley, buck and rye, What's the way the Frenchmen fly? Some fly east, and some fly west, And some fly over the cuckoo' nest." "Charley Barley, butter and eggs, Sold his wife for three duck eggs, When the ducks began... Charley Barley flew away"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: playparty bird food wife nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #294 n. 90, p. 170, "(Charley Barley, Butter and Eggs)"
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #113, "Charley Barley" (1 short text)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 69, "The Old Cuckoo's Nest" (1 text, combining the "Wire Briar" portion of "Intery Mintery Cutery Corn" with the "Some flew east" portion of "Charley Barley")
Roud #19303
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Georgie Porgie" (lyrics)
NOTES [65 words]: I'm not sure these two Charley Barley rhymes are the same, but they're both rare enough that I just decided to lump them. The Baring-Goulds lump it with "Georgie Porgie," presumably because of the last line about flying away.
Roud lumps this with "Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck," which I don't see, and "Charlie Chuck Married a Duck," which I'd consider possible but not certain. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Newe113

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