Mary Mack
"Mary Mack", also known as "Miss Mary Mack", is a clapping game of unknown origin. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world".[1]
Description
[edit]In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands according to the rhyming song. In some places, the repeated notes are given a quarter note triplet rhythmic value or sounded early to syncopate the rhythm.
The same song is also used as a skipping-rope rhyme,[2] although rarely so, according to one source.[3]
History
[edit]An early version of a verse of "Mary Mack" collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania appears in the book The Counting Out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888).[4]
Other early sources (1902, 1905) show variations of "She asked her mother for fifty cents to see the elephant jump the fence" with no mention of Mary Mack.[5][6]
The origin of the name Mary Mack is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. One theory is that Miss Mary Mack was a performer in Ephraim Williams’s circus in the 1880s; the song may be reference to her and the elephants in the show.[7][failed verification] According to another theory, Mary Mack originally referred to the USS Merrimack, an American warship of the mid-1800s named after the Merrimack River, that would have been black, with silvery rivets.[citation needed]
Rhyme
[edit]Various versions of the song exist; a common version goes:[8]
- Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
- All dressed in black, black, black
- With silver buttons, buttons, buttons
- All down her back, back, back
- She asked her mother, mother, mother
- For 50 cents, cents, cents
- To see the elephants, elephants, elephants
- Jump over the fence, fence, fence
- They jumped so high, high, high
- They reached the sky, sky, sky
- And didn't come back, back, back
- Till the 4th of July ly ly
Alternate versions use "15 cents", "never came down" and end with repeating "July, July, July".[9]
An alternate version, sung in Canada and England, includes the words:[citation needed]
- She could not read, read, read
- She could not write, write, write
- But she could smoke, smoke, smoke
- Her father’s pipe, pipe, pipe
An alternate version, sung in the American South:[citation needed]
- Mary Mack,
- Dressed in black,
- Silver buttons all down her back.
- She combed her hair
- And broke the comb
- She's gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home
- Gonna get a whoopin' when her Momma comes home
The first three lines above are stated in one source to be a riddle with the answer "coffin".[10]
Clap
[edit]A common version of the accompanying clap is as follows:
- Pat arms across chest: Arms across chest
- Pat thighs: Pat thighs
- Clap hands: Clap hands
- Clap right hands together: Clap right palms with partner
- Clap left hands together: Clap left palms with partner
- Clap both hand together
- Clap both palms with partner
Another version:[11]
- &: One palm up, one palm down
- 4: Clap both partners hands
- &: Clap own hands
- 1: Cross arms to chest
- 2: Slap thighs
- 3: Clap own hands
Another version:
- 4: Pat thighs
- &: Clap hands
- 1: Clap partners right hand
- &: Clap hands
- &: Clap partners left hand
- &: Clap hands
- 2: Clap both partners hands
- &: Clap hands
Another version:
- &: One palm up, one palm down
- 1: Clap both partners hands
- &: Reverse hands
- 2: Clap both partners hands
- &: Clap own hands
- 4: Clap partners right hand
- &: Clap hands
- 5: Clap partners left hand
- &: Clap hands
- 6: Clap partners right hand
- &: Clap hands
repeat
See also
[edit]- "DemiRep" – a song from the punk rock band Bikini Kill that includes "Mary Mack"
- "Tobacco Origin Story" – a poem by Joy Harjo, which refers to the song
- "Walking the Dog" – 1963 single by Rufus Thomas with lyrics based on "Mary Mack"
- "Witchcraft" – 1989 single by Book of Love with a reference to "Mary Mack"
- "Figaro" – a song on the 2004 album Madvillainy that references "All black like Miss Mary Mack"
References
[edit]- ^ Gaunt, Kyra Danielle (6 February 2006). The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-hop. NYU Press. p. 63. ISBN 0-8147-3120-1. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
- ^ Gaunt, Games Black Girls Play, p. 68
- ^ Cole, Joanna (1989). Anna Banana: 101 Jump-rope Rhymes. HarperCollins. p. 13. ISBN 0-688-08809-0. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
- ^ Bolton, Henry Carrington (1888). The Counting-out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin, and Wide ... Harvard University. D. Appleton & Company. p. 117.
- ^ Heath, Lilian M. (1902). Eighty Good Times Out of Doors. Fleming H. Revell Co. p. 186. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
elephant jump the fence.
- ^ Day, Holman F. (1905). Squire Phin: A Novel. A. L. Burt Co. p. 21. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
- ^ "The Black Circus and the Multiplicity of Gazes". News. 2021-04-27. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
- ^ "Rhymes." The Lima News. 15 March 1992, Page 23 (C3).
- ^ Creamer, M. (1972) "Chants skip through years". Tampa Bay Times. 27 February 1972. Page 91.
- ^ Odum, Howard W. (1928). Rainbow Round My Shoulder: The Blue Trail of Black Ulysses (2006 ed.). Indiana University Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-253-21854-3. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
- ^ Bernstein, Sara (1994). Hand Clap!, p.88-9. ISBN 1-55850-426-5. Rhythm not provided.