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

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

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]}

In the 1950s, US Italian immigrant Quinto Bravo, made up the 4th of July verse for his son, Fred, who was born on the 4th of July, and passed onto Fred’s (b. 1950) great nephew, Dean (b. 2024), also born on the 4th.

Rhyme

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

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

References

^ 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. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

[1] 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.

[2] Gaunt, Games Black Girls Play, p. 68

[3] Cole, Joanna (1989). Anna Banana: 101 Jump-rope Rhymes. HarperCollins. p. 13. ISBN 0-688-08809-0. Retrieved 2011-04-08.

[4] Bolton, Henry Carrington (1888). The Counting-out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin, and Wide ... Harvard University. D. Appleton & Company. p. 117.

[5] Heath, Lilian M. (1902). Eighty Good Times Out of Doors. Fleming H. Revell Co. p. 186. Retrieved 2011-04-08. elephant jump the fence.

[6] Day, Holman F. (1905). Squire Phin: A Novel. A. L. Burt Co. p. 21. Retrieved 2011-04-08.

[7] "The Black Circus and the Multiplicity of Gazes". News. 2021-04-27. Retrieved 2022-11-13.

[8] "Rhymes." The Lima News. 15 March 1992, Page 23 (C3).

[9] Creamer, M. (1972) "Chants skip through years". Tampa Bay Times. 27 February 1972. Page 91.

[10] 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. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

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