The Noble Duke of York
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
Oh, the noble Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.
When they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down.
"The Noble Duke of York" (also sung as "The Grand Old Duke of York") is an English children's<br> nursery rhyme, often performed as an action song.<br> Like many popular nursery rhymes the origins of the song are probably political.<br> Candidates for the duke in question include:<br> Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), who was defeated at the Battle of Wakefield on<br> 30 December 1460. <br> James II (1633–1701), formerly Duke of York, who in 1688 marched his troops to Salisbury Plain<br> to resist the invasion from his son-in-law William of Orange, only to retreat and disperse them<br> as his support began to evaporate.<br> Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), the second son of King George III and<br> Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the<br> Napoleonic Wars.<br> A similar Nursery rhyme is "The King of France Went Up the Hill".<br> The lyrics were not printed in their modern form until relatively recently, in Arthur Rackham's<br> Mother Goose in 1913.<br> It is in the Roud Folk Song Index as #742.<br>
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