Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1996 16:17:37 -0400

From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA

Subject: weasels a-poppin'--and monkeys



thanks for all the info you-all sent me on pop goes the weasel. am

now summarizing it for my notes and have noticed a gap. once one

knows the hat-making-tool-pawning meaning of "pop goes the weasel"

all the older verses (i.e. those that haven't animated the weasel)

make sense, except for the refrain, which introduces the monkey:



ev'ry night when i come home // whenever X's out of the house

(and) the monkey's on the table

take a stick and knock him off

pop goes the weasel.



were monkeys popular pets among london hatmakers at some point, or

is this another bit of slang? the only era/place appropriate meaning

of "monkey" in partridge's slang dictionary is "500 pounds sterling",

which seems an unlikely thing to want to knock off the table if you

have to pop your weasel.



ideas welcome.



lynne



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