MAIRZY DOATS.
Sir,-Your commentator cites "Mairzy Doats" as a recent example of exasperating doggerel. It is very probable that mediaeval mothers were deeved by schoolboys who considered "Mairzy Doats" very smart and funny. In most reasonably comprehensive collections of nursery rhymes there is the old mediaeval latin doggerel verse: In fir tar is, In oak none is, In mud eel is, In clay none is, . Goat eat ivy, Mare eat oats. It would be interesting to know if this old rhyme has never gone out of circulation in America, and if it had already been altered to its present form before it received a tune. I still laugh at my stupidity at not recognizing it for what it was and at my owlish solemnity in trying to extract a meaning from it for various infantile members of my family.
IVY
(Dunedin).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 462, 30 April 1948, Page 5
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141MAIRZY DOATS. New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 462, 30 April 1948, Page 5
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