Pop! Goes the Weasel

When I was a kid, the song, Pop! Goes the Weasel terrified me. I didn't like Jack-in-the-Boxes either and even today I can't bear to open a biscuit can. Tuning the 6th string on my 12-string guitar can give me a heart attack because being an E and having to be cranked up to G often results in it breaking. I'm skittish that way. Added to this is the fact that in my mind I've always mixed up Three Blind Mice with the Weasel song, leaving me with mental images of a monkey with a carving knife, and that would terrify anyone. Poor weasel, popping open and spurting blood everywhere... No wonder I had nightmares of it as a child. Yesterday, I decided to look up the history of the song and I of course have to share with you what I discovered...

Pop! Goes the Weasel is, musically speaking, a jig that's usually thought of as a nursery rhyme. It probably dates back to 17th century England. The song is also associated with Jack-in-the-Boxes; when the song gets to "Pop!" the Jack pops up, which can either delight or terrify a kid the first time it happens. Here is the basic melody:

The most common (English) version:

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle;
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Here are some alternative verses:

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)
Pop! goes the weasel.

All around the Mulberry Bush,
The Worthog chased the weasel;
The Worthog pulled out his elephant gun,
Pop goes the Weasel.

That's a good one.

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

Up and down the City Road, (or Up and down the King's Highway)
In and out The Eagle;
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

For you may try to sew and sew,
But you'll never make anything regal;
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.

The monkey and the weasel fought,
The weasel's really feeble;
The monkey punched him in the face,
Pop! goes the weasel.

I like that one, too.

Every time when I come home,
The monkey's on the table;
Cracking nuts and eating spice (or Take a stick and knock it off)
Pop! goes the weasel.

Versions in the United States include:

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

All around the vinegar jug,
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey pulled the stopper out,
Pop! goes the weasel.

I've never heard any of those though. The one I grew up with was:

All around the cobbler's bench, (or the mulberry bush)
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey thought twas all in good sport, (or all in good fun)
Pop! goes the weasel.

Why the hell did that scare me? Had to be the mix up with Three Blind Mice.

The Weasel Unveiled
One interpretation of this song is that it is about silk weavers working with their shuttles or bobbins, called "weasands" or "weasels". Another interpretation derives from the need for the poor working class of England to have to "pop" their coats ("weasels and stoats" in Cockney rhyming slang), that is, taking them to a pawnbroker to obtain money for drinking. Another possibility is that "weasel" is a corruption of "whistle" and means "suit" (in this case being derived from the Cockney "whistle and flute"). In either interpretation, the rhyme describes the pawning of the worker's only valuable items — the "Sunday best" clothing — after exhausting the week's wages on the food items such as rice and treacle, which, though cheap, were and are fundamentally useless to anyone if the buyer is poor and has nothing to eat them with. It is thought, however, that early quack doctors would have prescribed treacle as a sort of medicine, and gullible workers that were prone to illness would have spent their money on trying to maintain the health of themselves and their families.

The Eagle Located
It's possible that the eagle mentioned in the song's third verse refers to The Eagle pub along Shepherdess Walk in London, which was established as a music hall in 1825 and later rebuilt as a pub in 1901. This pub bears a plaque with an interpretation of the nursery rhyme and the pub's history. Shepherdess Walk is just off the City Road mentioned in the same verse: Up and down the City Road, in and out The Eagle.

While the rhyme certainly originated in England, the meaning of the terms in the first verse with which people are familiar in the U.S. is well established. In the late 19th century, the technology for weaving on large rack looms was brought to the United States from England. Along with it came a traditional work song. The verse mentioning weasels and monkeys might be about the children that were employed to sit inside these huge industrial looms and chase the loom shuttle around, unsticking it when it went awry and correcting any mis-weaves that resulted. Thus the children hopped around like monkeys chasing the shuttle which reminded workers of a weasel as it threaded its way in and out of the narrow passages between the rack levels. The pop sound may refer to the sharp noise made as the large shuttle paddles at each side of the loom slapped the shuttle back and forth each time the racks reversed position.

That Fucking Monkey
"Monkey" is believed to be a 19th century term for a pub drinking vessel. A "stick" is a shot of alcohol, while "knock it off" is to drink it. If this is what the song means, then it had to have come through 200 years in tact.

As in the case of London Bridge is Falling Down, which is about the Great Fire of London, and Ring Around the Rosie, a song about the Plague, Pop! Goes the Weasel has hidden meanings. At least there's no carving knife mentioned.


Information was harvested from Wikipedia.