Note 449 — Chapter V · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF COMMUNAL POETRY

See Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, p. 197:—

John Ball shot them all.

John Scott made the shot,—

But John Ball shot them all.

John Wyming made the priming,

And John Brammer made the rammer,

And John Scott ..., etc.

This is cumulative. But an old song of the fifteenth century is incremental, a jolly bit of verse withal: Wright-Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, I. 4 f.—

The fals fox camme into owre croft,

And so owre geese ful fast he sought;

Refrain: With how, fox, how, with hey, fox, hey,

Comme no more into oure house to bere owre gese awaye.

The fals fox camme into oure stye ..., etc.