The Play of Man. Karl Groos
in of the chorus with the other singers, this chain singing must have begun from new voices taking up the verse where others dropped it. For a last word on the subject, take this exquisite poem of Goethe’s, which combines the chain repetition with the charm of a refrain:
“O gieb vom weichen Pfühle
Träumend ein halb Gehör!
Bei meinem Saitenspiele
Schlafe! Was willst du mehr?
“Bei meinem Saitenspiele
Segnet der Sterne Heer
Die ewigen Gefühle.
Schlafe! Was willst du mehr?
“Die ewigen Gefühle
Heben mich hoch und hehr
Aus irdischem Gewühle.
Schlafe! Was willst du mehr?
“Vom irdischem Gewühle,” etc.
“O from that soft couch
Dreamily lend an ear!
Lulled by my violin’s music
Sleep! What do you wish for more?
“Lulled by my violin’s music
Like the spell of the starry skies,
A sense of the infinite moves you.
Sleep! What do you wish for more?
“A sense of the infinite moves you
And me to loftier heights,
Away from earth’s striving tumult,
Sleep! What do you wish for more?
“Away from earth’s striving tumult,” etc.
When the repetition is of single letters and syllables, instead of whole sentences, we call it alliteration and rhyme. A few examples will suffice to show that both are as important to the sound plays of children as to the poetry of adults. The alliteration may be mere repetition, as even the babbling babe loves to duplicate sounds, and while sometimes logical connection of ideas is conveyed as well (Haus und Hof, hearth and home), children enjoy meaningless sound-play quite as well.
“Hinters’ Hanse Hinterhaus
Haut Haus Holderholz
Hetzt Hund und Hühnerhund
Hart hinter’m Hase her.”
“Meiner Mutter Magd macht mir mein mus mit meiner Mutter Mehl.”
“Können Kaiser Karls’ Köch
Kalbsköpf und Kabisköpf kochen?”
“Round the rugged riven rock the ragged rascal rapid ran.”
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
“Didon dina, dit-on, du dos d’un dodu dindon.”
As an example of original production, take this composition of Willie F——‘s, which he liked to recite as he pushed his wagon about the room:
“Wein, wein, wein, wein, wein, wein, wam,
Wein, wein, wein, wein, wein, wein, wam,” etc.
The verse of Ennius, “O Tyte, tuti Tati, tibi tanta, tyranne tulisti,” shows that adults, too, enjoy such alliteration, not only as a promoter of poetic beauty, but also for the mere play of sound.
Rhyme is often mere reduplication,79 its agreeableness being due to the actual musical quality to which identity and variety contribute, to repetition as such, and to its unifying effect on the two words or lines concerned. Children show enjoyment of rhyme at a very early age, and as soon as they can talk often amuse themselves with such combinations as Emma-bemma, Mutter-Butter, Wagon-Pagon, Hester-pester, and the like.80 And there are many counting out rhymes where the original meaning of the words is lost, and only the jingle remains, as:
“Ane-Kane, Hacke-Packe,
Relle-Belle, Rädli-Bägli,
Zinke-Pinke, Uff-Puff:
Das fûle, futze Galgevögeli
Hocket hinten ûff.”
“Wonary, uary, icary, Ann,
Philison, folison, Nicholas, John,
Quimby, quamby, Virgin Mary,
Stringulum, strangulum, Buck!”
“Eindli-Beindli. Drittmann-Eindli,
Silberhauke, Finggefauke,
Pärli, puff, Bettel duss.”
“Anige hanige, Sarege-sirige,
Ripeti-pipeti-knoll!”81
To regard these rhymes as the direct inventions of the children themselves would be as mistaken as to attribute folk poetry to the masses. Most songs for children originate with grown people, yet they are childish and contain only what children can appreciate, for the principle of selection decides their fate. At the same time, original artistic production is exhibited by children in alliteration and rhythm as well as in rhyme. Thus, I noticed in Marie G——, when she was about three years old, a disposition to sportive variation of familiar rhymes appearing simultaneously with the rhythmic arrangement of words. The first rhyme evolved entirely from the profundities of her own genius came to light at the beginning of her fourth year, in the shape of this strange couplet, which she repeated untiringly:
“Naseweis vom Wasser weg
Welches da liegt noch mehr Dreck.”
Another child, Rudolf F——, also in his fourth year, declaimed persistently this original poem:
“Hennemäs’che, Weideidäs’che,
Sind ja lauter Käsebäs’che.”
Pleasure in overcoming difficulties is an essential feature of all play. The determined onset against opposition, which is so conspicuous in play, shows how important is the fighting instinct, so deeply rooted in us all. Even in the lall-monologue, when the child accidentally produces a new sound by means of some unusual muscular effort, he intentionally repeats it (Baldwin’s persistent imitation82). Older children playfully cultivate dexterity of articulation by repeating rapidly difficult combinations of sounds. The commonest are those where the difficulty is mainly physiological, as Wachs-Maske, Mess-Wechsel; Der Postkutscher putzt den Postkutschkasten; L’origine ne se desoriginalisera jamais de son originalité; Si six scies scient six cyprès; She stood at the door of Burgess’s fish-sauce shop welcoming him in; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? And many similar ones. Others require quickness of wits as well, as in these verses:
“This is the key to the gate
Where the beautiful maidens wait.
The first is called Binka,
The second Bibiabinka,
The third Senkkrenkknokiabibiabinka.
Binka took a stone,
And for Senkkrenkknokiabibiabinka broke a bone,
So that Senkkrenkknokiabibiabinka began to moan.”83
Occasionally some obscurity in the language used involves a comic element, as—
“Basanneli, Basanneli,
Schlag ’uff und stand a Licht
Es geht a Haus im Geist herum,
Ich greif, er fürcht mich an.
Zünd’s Kühele an, zünds Kühele an,