Pop Goes the Weasel

"Pop! Goes the Weasel"
Sheet music
Nursery rhyme
Published	1852

“Pop! Goes the Weasel” is an English nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5249. It is often used in Jack-in-the-box toys.

Lyrics

There are many different versions of the lyrics to the song. In England, most share the basic verse:

	Pop Goes the Weasel Tune for Pop Goes the Weasel
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Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That's the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.^[1]

Often a second and third verse is added:

Every night when I go out,
The monkey's on the table,
Take a stick and knock it off,
Pop! goes the weasel.^[1]

Up and down the City road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.^[2]

Origins

We hear of a boat named "Pop Goes The Weasel" competing in the Durham Regatta in June 1852,^[3], but it was in December of that year that "Pop Goes The Weasel" first came to prominence as a social dance in England. A ball held in Ipswich on 13 December 1852 ended with "a country dance, entitled 'Pop Goes the Weasel', one of the most mirth inspiring dances which can well be imagined."^[4] On 24 December 1852, dance lessons for "Pop Goes The Weasel", described as a "highly fashionable Dance, recently introduced at her Majesty's and the Nobility's private soirees", were advertised in Birmingham.^[5] By the 28th of that month, a publication including "the new dance recently introduced with such distinguished success at the Court balls" and containing "the original music and a full explanation of the figures by Mons. E. Coulon" was being advertised in The Times.^[6]

The tune appears to have begun as dance music, to which words were later added.. A music sheet acquired by the British Library in 1853 describes a dance, "Pop! Goes the Weasel", as "An Old English Dance, as performed at Her Majesty's & The Nobilities Balls, with the Original Music". It had a tune very similar to that used today but only the words "Pop! Goes the Weasel".^[1][7] A similar piece of sheet music published in 1853 is available online at the Library of Congress; it also contains no words other than "Pop Goes the Weasel", but gives a detailed description of the dance.^[8] The dance became extremely popular, and featured on stage^[9] as well as in dance-halls.^[10] By September of the same year the title was being used as a scornful riposte^[11] and soon words were added to an already well-known tune.^[12] The song is mentioned in November 1855 in a Church of England pamphlet^[13] where it is described as a universally popular song played in the streets on barrel organs, but with "senseless lyrics": the use of alternative, more wholesome words is suggested. The following verse had been written by 1856 when it was quoted in a performance at the Theatre Royal.

A piece of sheet music, copyrighted in Baltimore in 1846, advertises "Pop Goes the Weasel, sung by Mr. Chapman", written by "Raymond", as among the "Ballads" available for sale from the same publisher;^[14]; however a copy of that sheet music available online at the Johns Hopkins University indicates that it dates from significantly later (1856).^[15]

American versions

	Pop Goes the Weasel Tune for Pop Goes the Weasel by Nicolas Gasparini (myuu)
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The song seems to have crossed the Atlantic in the 1850s where U.S. newspapers soon afterwards call it "the latest English dance", and the phrase "Pop! goes the weasel" soon took hold.^[16] The remaining words were still unstable in Britain, and as a result some of the U.S. lyrics are significantly different and may have an entirely different source, but use the same tune.^[16] The following lyric was printed in Boston in 1858:

All around the cobbler’s house,
The monkey chased the people.
And after them in double haste,
Pop! goes the weasel.^[17]

In 1901 in New York the opening lines were:

All around the chicken coop,
The possum chased the weasel.^[17]

The most common recent version was not recorded until 1914. In addition to the three verses above, American versions often include some of the following:

All around the mulberry bush,
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey stopped to pull up his sock, (or The monkey stopped to scratch his nose) (or The monkey fell down and oh what a sound)
Pop! goes the weasel.

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Contemporary verses in the United States include these, the first three being sung one after the other with the third getting the 'closing' version of the tune.

All around the mulberry bush, (or cobbler’s bench) (or carpenter’s bench)
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought ’twas all in good fun, (or ’twas all in good sport) (or that it was a joke) (or it was a big joke) (or 'twas all in fun)
Pop! goes the weasel.

Up and down the King's Road,
In and out the Eagle,
That's the way the money goes -
Pop! goes the weasel.

A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle—
That's the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Jimmy’s got the whooping cough
And Timmy’s got the measles.
That’s the way the story goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

I've no time to wait and sigh,
No patience to wait 'til by and by.
Kiss me quick, I'm off, goodbye!
Pop! goes the weasel.

There are numerous American versions^[18] as printed in Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume III, pp. 368–369. Randolph's #556, the A text. Collected 1926 from Mrs. Marie Wilbur of Pineville, Missouri.

Meaning and interpretations

Perhaps because of the obscure nature of the various lyrics there have been many suggestions for what they mean, particularly the phrase "Pop! goes the weasel", including: that it is a tailor's flat iron, a dead weasel, a hatter's tool, a spinner's weasel used for measuring in spinning,^[16][19] a piece of silver plate, or that 'weasel and stoat' is Cockney rhyming slang for "throat", as in "Get that down yer Weasel" meaning to eat or drink something.

An alternative meaning which fits better with the theme of "that's the way the money goes" involves pawning one's coat in desperation to buy food and drink, as "weasel (and stoat)" is more usually and traditionally Cockney rhyming slang for "Coat" rather than throat^[20] and "pop" is a slang word for "pawn".^[21]

"Pop goes the weasel" meant pawning a coat. Decent coats and other clothes were handmade, expensive and pawnable. The monkey on the table in verse two was the demand for payment of a mortgage or other secured loan^[22][23]. If knocked off the table or ignored it would go unpaid and accrue interest, requiring the coat to be pawned again. The stick itself may also be rhyming slang - "Sticks and Stones: Loans".

The "Eagle" in the song's third verse probably refers to The Eagle freehold pub at the corner of Shepherdess Walk and City Road mentioned in the same verse.^[24][25] The Eagle was an old pub in City Road, London, which was rebuilt as a music hall in 1825, demolished in 1901, and then rebuilt as a public house.^[26] This public house bears a plaque with this interpretation of the nursery rhyme and the pub's history.

A spinner's weasel consists of a wheel which is revolved by the spinner in order to measure off thread or yarn after it has been produced on the spinning wheel. The weasel is usually built so that the circumference is six feet, so that 40 revolutions produces 80 yards of yarn, which is a skein. It has wooden gears inside and a cam, designed to cause a popping sound after the 40th revolution, telling the spinner that she has completed the skein.^{[19][27][28][29]}

Other than correspondences, none of these theories has any additional evidence to support it, and some can be discounted because of the known history of the song.^[1] Iona and Peter Opie observed that, even at the height of the dance craze in the 1850s, no-one seemed to know what the phrase meant.^[1].

As a singing game

In Britain the rhyme has been played as a children's game since at least the late 19th century. The first verse quoted above is sung, while several rings are formed and they dance around. One player more than the number of rings are designated as "weasels", all but one standing in the rings. When the "Pop! goes the weasel" line is reached they have to rush to a new ring before anyone else can. The one that fails is eliminated and the number of circles is reduced by one until there is only one weasel left.^[1] This is basically the American game of musical chairs: music is played as players circle a row of chairs, one fewer chairs than players, while music plays. When the music stops, the players vie for the available chairs, and the player left standing is "out".

Pop recording

A pop version of the song was recorded in 1938 by The Merry Macs on Decca Records (Decca 64413-A) and again in 1961 by British singer Anthony Newley, also on the Decca label (Decca F11362), and reached number 12 in the UK singles chart.

Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961).

The tune is prominently used in numerous Three Stooges episodes.

It was used as the theme music for the 15 episodes^[30] of the BBC radio show called Pop Go The Beatles and recorded by the British group on Friday 24 May 1963. This recording was not included in either BBC albums.^[31]

Other uses

The melody of "Pop Goes the Weasel" was used as a leitmotif in several episodes of the 1960s science fiction series The Prisoner, particularly in the series' penultimate episode "Once Upon a Time" in which the lead character, under an intense form of interrogation, obsessively sings the song, with "POP" identified as a meme representing the directive "protect other people".^[32]

The animated series I Am Weasel uses the nursery rhyme as its basic premise and the show's theme song is also sampled from it.^[33]

In Thomas & Friends, the tune is used in a taunting song aimed at Diesel called "Pop Goes the Diesel" in the episode of the same name.^[34] Another episode uses the tune in a taunting song aimed at Oliver called "Pop Goes Old Ollie", in "Toad Stands By".^[35]

In 1973, Sesame Street had an animated cartoon short based on the song that has the monkey and the weasel in the song, as the monkey is shown chasing the weasel, but it had them switch their body parts as part of a series of "What if..." cartoons directed, produced, designed, and animated by Cliff Roberts.

In a 1997 episode of NYPD Blue titled "The Truth Is Out There", detective Andy Sipowicz is bothered by the fact that he sang "Pop Goes the Weasel" to his child but had no idea what it meant. Throughout the remainder of the episode, the detectives ask various suspects and witnesses what the song means but are unable to arrive at a clear answer.^[36]

The rhyme is also the theme song for the creepypasta character Laughing Jack.

The song is used as a mnemonic device for the quadratic formula: "x equals negative b / plus or minus the square root / of b squared minus 4ac / all over 2a"."^[37]

The tune "Barwick Green" is based on the melody of Pop Goes The Weasel.

The melody is one of the most commonly used tunes played in the children's toy known as the jack-in-the-box.

References

Notes

External links

• Public domain version from 1853 arranged by Charley Twiggs on IMSLP.org

NYPD SEASON 5 Episode 4. Detectives use the running theme of ' Pop goes the weasel ' in an attempt to ascertain the meaning implied by ' Pop ' in the rhyme.