Frog Went A-Courting- Flora Lassiter c. 1890/1865
[The melody for this song (which Horace M. Belden believes is the most widely known song in the English language) first appears in Thomas Ravenscroft's "Melismata" (1611). It is an early version of the song ("Froggie Went A-Courtin'") famous in British and American traditional folklore and folksong, of which the earliest appearance was in Wedderburn's "Complaynt of Scotland" (1549) where it is called "The frog cam to the myl dur."
R. Matteson 2014]
FROG WENT A-COURTING
(In the following verses the repetition and the "Uh huh!" are left out, they are of course to be supplied by the singer. )
1. Frog went a courting and he did ride, un-huh!
Frog went a-courting and he did ride,
Sword and pistol by his side: un-huh!
2. He got down and he went in,
To see Miss mouse card and spin .
3. Took Miss Mouse on his knee,
Said "Miss Mouse, will you marry me?"
4. Where will the wedding supper be?
Way down yonder in a hollow tree.
5. What will the wedding supper be?
Two blue beans and a- black-eyed pea.
6. First come 1n was a striped snake,
And he brought along the wedding cake.
7. Next cone in was a bumble bee,
Carrying a fiddle on his knee.
The above is remembered by L.L. McDowell from the singing of his mother about the year 1890. There were other verses which he does not remember. The tune as well as the words were learned by her in her childhood, shortly after the War Between The States .
The fiddle tune "Baby" [Baby Mine has same form], found elsewhere in this collection, seems to have been derived from this tune.