What the song is about
This is a version of the old folk song
Froggy Went a-Courtin'. Froggie, a frog, rides to the house of Miss Mouse and asks her to marry him. She says she needs her Uncle Rat's permission first. Uncle Rat agrees and buys her a wedding dress. The animals plan a wedding supper in a hollow tree, and a bumblebee and a flea come to play music and dance. Then the old gray cat arrives and swallows the mouse and the rat, and a snake swallows Froggie. The sudden, silly ending is typical of old folk songs.
Useful words and expressions
- to go courting (a-courtin'): an old-fashioned way to say to try to win someone as a partner, to date
- sword and pistol: weapons a gentleman once carried
- are you within?: old-fashioned for are you at home?
- kind sir: a polite, old way to speak to a man
- to spin: to make thread from wool
- upon his knee: on his knee (upon is a more formal on)
- consent: permission
- to gallop: to ride a horse very fast
- niece: the daughter of your brother or sister
- wedding gown: wedding dress
- wedding supper: the evening meal at a wedding
- way down yonder: far over there (old, regional English)
- a hollow tree: a tree that is empty inside
- fiddle: a violin, especially in folk music
- to dance a jig: to do a quick, lively folk dance
- to swallow up: to eat something whole
Grammar
- Simple past for storytelling: rode, said, took, galloped, came, swallowed.
- Past perfect: where he had often been before – something that happened earlier than the story.
- Questions with shall: Where shall the wedding supper be? What shall the wedding supper be? – an old-fashioned way to ask about plans. Today people usually say Where will…? or Where should…?
- Conditional with would: I wouldn't marry the President – she would not marry anyone, not even the President.
- Ordinals with to + verb: The first to come in was…, The next to come in was…
- Passive with get: he got swallowed by a big green snake – informal passive.
Don't copy these
Old folk songs bend the language for rhythm and rhyme:
- a-courtin' puts a- in front of an -ing verb. This is old dialect; today we say went courting.
- he did ride uses did only to fit the rhythm and rhyme with side. In normal English: he rode.
- So Uncle Rat, he galloped down repeats the subject (Uncle Rat, he). This is a storytelling style; normally just say Uncle Rat galloped down.
- Way down yonder and within sound old-fashioned and are not used in everyday speech.
