Brief synopsis of "The Doll's Wooing":
This adorable little
lullaby, is a love story between a two dolls in a little girls care. Two things that shock and suprise me about this song, but perhaps I'm naive? 1) The use of "
Tricked out" in a song from 1894? I thought "tricked out" was a relatively new term. 2) I'm also suprised they had dolls with a
voice box as early as 1894. I wrote about
chatty cathy and her and her voice box were all the rage in the '60's. While I've been sharing these lullabies because I only wish I'd had access to these when my son was a babe, 1980... but there's so much more to them and the
historical importance of them. I plan to look into when dolls first aquired a voicebox and node it, and share a link to that node
here.
a lullaby from Love-Songs of Childhood
by Eugene Field, 1894
THE DOLL'S WOOING
The little French doll was a dear little doll
Tricked out in the sweetest of dresses;
Her eyes were of hue
A most delicate blue
And dark as the night were her tresses;
Her dear little mouth was fluted and red,
And this little French doll was so very well bred
That whenever accosted her little mouth said
"Mamma! mamma!"
The stockinet doll, with one arm and one leg,
Had once been a handsome young fellow;
But now he appeared
Rather frowzy and bleared
In his torn regimentals of yellow;
Yet his heart gave a curious thump as he lay
In the little toy cart near the window one day
And heard the sweet voice of that French dolly say:
"Mamma! mamma!"
He listened so long and he listened so hard
That anon he grew ever so tender,
For it's everywhere known
That the feminine tone
Gets away with all masculine gender!
He up and he wooed her with soldierly zest
But all she'd reply to the love he professed
Were these plaintive words (which perhaps you have guessed):
"Mamma! mamma!"
Her mother - a sweet little lady of five -
Vouchsafed her parental protection,
And although stockinet
Wasn't blue-blooded, yet
She really could make no objection!
So soldier and dolly were wedded one day,
And a moment ago, as I journeyed that way,
I'm sure that I heard a wee baby voice say:
"Mamma! mamma!"
from Project Gutenberg (public domain)
Love-Songs of Childhood index
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