Oh Dear Doctor

DESCRIPTION: "Oh dear doctor, can you tell, What will make poor so-and-so well? She is sick and like to die And that will make poor so-and-so cry." Sometimes, the text continues that the boy has "the prettiest girl of Mrs so-and-so's daughters."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren)
KEYWORDS: courting playparty doctor disease
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame 32, "Oh Dear Doctor" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #36, "The Doctor's Prescription" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5, p. 540, "Oh, Dear Doctor" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 119, "(Doctor, Doctor, can you tell)" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #350, "Mother, mother, can you tell" (1 text)
Roud #19115
NOTES [133 words]: The first four lines of Opie/Opie-TheSingingGame are the same as the fourth verse of Jean Olive Heck, "Folk Poetry and Folk Criticism, as Illustrated by Cincinnati Children in Their Singing Games and Their Thoughts about These Games" in The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. XL, No. 155 (Jan 1927 (available online by JSTOR)), #24 p. 19 ("Rain, rain high, and the wind blows cold"). Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren's version is the same four line rhyme (see the first quote in the description. - BS
According to Newell, it wasn't just children who played this game; in France, it was played by adults, and the doctor's prescription was a kiss.
Roud lumps this with "Little Black Doctor," but I don't see much in common except the doctor -- and even that doesn't exist in some versions! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OpGa032

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