IDNO

P.9723.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: Knights of Spain.

Place

Europe British Isles; United Kingdom; England; ?Cambridgeshire; ?Barrington

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [B.A.A.S. Ethnographic Survey, 1893 - 1897]

Date

circa 1893 - 1897

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Place: The Place field was previously recorded as being “Europe; Spain”, but the game is called the ‘Knights of Spain’ and is being played by girls, possibly at Barrington?, Cambridgeshire?, England, and possibly by A.C. Haddon during his B.A.A.S. Ethnographic Survey, 1893-1897. The Place field has been amended accordingly. [JD 2/3/2010]

Context:  The 'Three Knights of Spain' is a game played [where] The dramatis personæ form themselves in two parties, one representing a courtly dame and her daughters, the other the suitors of the daughters. The last party, moving backwards and forwards, with their arms entwined, approach and recede from the mother party, which is stationary, singing to a very sweet air. See Chambers' 'Popular Rhymes,' p.66.] [Source: www.presscom.co.uk/nursery/4_p99.html, JD 4/11/2008]

Context: “The rhyme appeared in Mother Goose's Melody (1780?). Quoted below is the version from the edition (The Original Mother Goose's Melody) reprinted by Singing Tree Press (1969; from the 1785 ed., page 64):
WE'RE three Brethren out of Spain
Come to court your Daughter Jane:
My Daughter Jane she is too young,
She has no skill in a flattering Tongue,
Be she young, or be she old,
It's for her Gold she must be sold;
So fare you well, my Lady gay,
We must return another Day.
For more info, see Iona & Peter Opie, The Singing Game (pp. 92-103).” [Source: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=76264, JD 4/11/2008]