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Ding Dong Bell
All Instruments and Vocals: Douglas Milne
From the TwinkleTrax album "Vol. 3: Nursery Rhyme World - 20 Fantastic Songs For Kids"
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Lyrics of "Ding Dong Bell"
Origins of "Ding Dong Bell"
Pussy's in the well
Who put her in?
Little Johnny Flynn
Who pulled her out?
Little Tommy Stout
What a naughty boy was that
Try to drown poor Pussycat,
Who ne'er did any harm
But killed all the mice
In the Farmer's barn!
Origins of "Ding Dong Bell"
This nursery rhyme dates as far back as the 16th century. A variant was collected in 1580 by John Lant, an organist at Winchester Cathedral:
Jacke boy, ho boy newes,
The cat is in the well,
Let us ring now for her Knell,
Ding dong ding dong bell.
This verse was printed in 1609, in Thomas Ravenscroft's "Pammelia, Musicks Miscellanie" as a canon for 4 voices. This canon is mentioned in Shakespeare's "The Taming Of The Shrew" (Act IV, Scene i)
GRUMIO: Why, 'Jack, boy! ho! boy!' and as much news as will thaw.
A variation also appears Portia's song in The Merchant of Venice (Act III, Scene ii):
Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engender'd in the eyes,
With gazing fed; and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy's knell
I'll begin it, - Ding, dong, bell.
A further variation appears as part of Arial's song in "The Tempest" (Act I, Scene ii):
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now I hear them - Ding-dong, bell.
Little Johnny Flynn, pussy's tormentor, has had several names over the centuries. John Newbery's "Mother Goose's Melody" (1765) calls him Johnny Green:
Ding dong Bell
The Cat is in the Well,
Who put her in?
Little Johnny Green
What a naughty Boy was that,
To drown Poor Pussy Cat,
Who never did any Harm,
And kill'd the Mice in his Father's Barn
Maxim: He that injures one threatens an Hundred.
An illustration of "Ding Dong Bell" from J.W.Elliott's "Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs"(McGloughlin Bros., New York, 1880)
In "Infant Institutes" (1797), he is Tommy O'Linne - possibly a reference to another nursery rhyme "Tom a Lin and his Wife and his Wife's Mother". By 1840, in J.,G.Rusher's "Nursery Rhymes from the Royal Collections", he is Tommy Quinn.
By 1842, in James Orchard Halliwell's "Nursery Rhymes of England", he is Little Tommy Lin. In a fit of Victorian correctness, Pussy's rescuer is introduced as "Dog With Long Snout" (the cat is left to drown in Lant's original version, while later versions bring in Little Tommy Stout.):
Ding dong bell,
Pussy's in the well!
Who put her in?
Little Tommy Lin.
Who pulled her out?
Dog with long snout.
What a naughty boy was that
To drown poor pussy-cat,
Who never did any harm,
But kill'd the mice in his father's barn
Robert Ford's 1904 collection "Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories" prints a Scottish variation:
Ding dang, bell rang,
Cattie's in the well, man.
Fa' dang her in, man?
Jean and Sandy Din, man.
Fa' took her out, man?
Me and Willie Cout, man.
A' them that kent her
When she was alive,
Come to the burialie
Between four and five.
Supporters of political correctness have argued that "Ding Dong Bell" encourages children to throw cats into ponds. In 1949, Geoffrey Hall published a "reformed" version in "New Nursery Rhymes For Old":
Ding dong bell,
Pussy's at the well.
Who took her there?
Little Johnny Hare.
Who'll bring her in?
Little Tommy Thin.
What a jolly boy was that
To get some milk for pussy cat,
Who ne'er did any harm,
But played with the mice in his father's barn.
Origins text ©2012 TwinkleTrax Children's Songs.