Hey non nonny
Joseph Occhiogrosso
In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
nonny"
A student of mine pointed out that these words also appear in Lear and
one other play. I don't remember which she said, but I know it was a
comedy. Is there a source to these lines? Do they appear elsewhere?
Caius Marcius
In <5c9cjb$9...@camel0.mindspring.com> vec...@pipeline.com (Joseph
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey, nonny, nonny.
- CMC
butthead
i think the other place where the lines occurs is in Much Ado About
Nothing. as to the origins, i have no idea whence.
Derek Parker
In message <5caf9e$e...@sjx-ixn4.ix.netcom.com>
cori...@ix.netcom.com(Caius Marcius) writes:
> In <5c9cjb$9...@camel0.mindspring.com> vec...@pipeline.com (Joseph
> Occhiogrosso) writes:
> >
> >In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
> >nonny"
> >
> >A student of mine pointed out that these words also appear in Lear and
> >one other play. I don't remember which she said, but I know it was a
> >comedy. Is there a source to these lines? Do they appear elsewhere?
> >
'Hey nonny nonny' is simply a nonsense phrase which appears in
innumerable Elizabethan popular songs - rather like the 'Yea, yea, yea!' today!
Derek.
Thomas Larque
Joseph Occhiogrosso wrote:
>
> In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
"Hey Nonny Nonny" was a standardised refrain or chorus for popular songs.
A bit like backing singers singing "Boop-De-Doo" or something equally
meaningless as a refrain for 50s or 60s music.
When, later in the scene, Ophelia tries to persuade people to sing
"A-down a-down" ... "Call him a-down-a" these are also musical refrains,
to mark the end of sung verses.
I haven't been able to track down another "Hey, nonny" song immediately.
But "THE THREE RAVENS" a ballad, written down in about the 15th
Century, but which might have been sung much earlier, uses "down a downe"
refrains. I'll just quote the first verse :
"There were three ravens sat on a tree,
Down a downe, hay down, hay downe,
There were three ravens sat on a tree,
With a downe;
There were three ravens sat on a tree;
They were as blacke as they might be,
With a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe".
This song, like Ophelia's, is about death and mourning.
"Converting all your songs of woe to Hey, Nonny, Nonny!" (from Much Ado)
presumbably means changing from wailing depressive songs - with
"down-a-down" style choruses - to the cheerful bouncing songs that used
"Hey-Nonny-Nonny" as their refrain. If this is the case, then Ophelia's
use of the more cheerful refrain in a song about her father's death may
be evidence of her madness. I might very easily be wrong here.
Edgar (as poor Tom) also mentions "nonny" in King Lear - "... blows the
cold wind : Says suum, mun, ha, no, nonny". Which seems to suggest that
(in his faked madness) Poor Tom thinks that the wind is singing to him.
Hope this helps.
THOMAS.
a. s.
On 24 Jan 1997 14:00:14 GMT, cori...@ix.netcom.com(Caius Marcius) wrote:
->In <5c9cjb$9...@camel0.mindspring.com> vec...@pipeline.com (Joseph
->Occhiogrosso) writes:
->>
->>In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
->>nonny"
->>
->Much Ado About Nothing, II,iii - song by Balthasar
->
->Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more
->Men were deceivers ever,
->One foot in sea and one on shore,
->To one thing constant never:
->Then sigh not so, but let them go,
->And be you blithe and bonny,
->Converting all your sounds of woe
->Into hey, nonny, nonny.
->
-> - CMC
->
It appears that the verse may (not a "finite") be akin to the Irish or other
Northern Languages, for which the author maight have had some knowledge.
Someone with the ability might investigate the relationship of the words "non"
and "nonny" and see what definitions are intended, within the verse, since the
verse indicates that women should be pre-armed with the knowledge of the
unreliability of men and their lack of commitment, & that they should at that
point, put aside grief and return to a happy personality.
Therefore, one might look at folk-lore, for terms indicating happyness ("y"
intended); perhaps looking at songs as well other terms of the common people and
not so much at the formal language or its structure. (That is, check both the
basics of the language's definitions and the definitions of its "slang".)
a. s.
Thomas Larque
Joseph Occhiogrosso wrote:
>
> In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
Owen Picton
Caius Marcius (cori...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: In <5c9cjb$9...@camel0.mindspring.com> vec...@pipeline.com (Joseph
: Occhiogrosso) writes:
: >
: >In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
: >nonny"
: >
: >A student of mine pointed out that these words also appear in Lear and
: >one other play. I don't remember which she said, but I know it was a
: >
: Much Ado About Nothing, II,iii - song by Balthasar
: Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more
: Men were deceivers ever,
: One foot in sea and one on shore,
: To one thing constant never:
: Then sigh not so, but let them go,
: And be you blithe and bonny,
: Converting all your sounds of woe
: Into hey, nonny, nonny.
: - CMC
Sing no more ditties, sing no more,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fall of man was ever so
Since summer first was leavy,
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny nonny.
(second verse....)
Cheers,
Owen
--
Owen Picton, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
onpi...@unixg.ubc.ca
"Today I gave all I had. What I've kept, I've lost forever."
Robert Stonehouse
vec...@pipeline.com (Joseph Occhiogrosso) wrote:
>In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
>nonny"
Thomas Morley's First Book of Airs, 1600, no. 6, used by Shakespeare
in As You Like It , V.3
It was a lover and his lass
With a hey, with a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green cornfields did pass
In spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding;
Sweet lovers love the spring.
... etc.
It is a commonplace fill-up like falala. The Shorter Oxford says
nonny-nonny is often used to cover up something suggestive. Maybe so
in this case. One other song in Morley's book has a nonsense refrain,
no.XVII, which looks rather like that -
Will you buy a fine dog with a hole in his head?
With a dildo, dildo,dildo.
Muffs, cuffs, rebatoes and fine sister's thread,
With a dildo, dildo, dildo.
... etc.
(Apparently Morley's second and third books never appeared. So far as
I know, none of the composers who set out with a First Book made it to
no. 3 except Dowland, who did it exactly to time, 1597, 1600, 1603 -
three books, at intervals of three years, hinging on the centenary
year. Coincidence? Not a chance!)
ew...@cityscape.co.uk
Felicity Shoulders
Joseph Occhiogrosso wrote:
>
> In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
> nonny"
>
> one other play. I don't remember which she said, but I know it was a
> comedy. Is there a source to these lines? Do they appear elsewhere?
well, there's always Much Ado - "Then sigh not so, but let them go, and
be you blithe and bonny, converting all your sounds of woe into hey
nonny nonny" - My annotated Lear claimed they meant nothing.
Felicity Shoulders
DanaS64562
In Act I scene vi of Edward Forsett+s 1581 Latin comedy Pedantius, acted
at Trinity College Cambridge, Lydia says to Pedantius Lyd. Hei! Nonne,
nonne, no, Pedanti.
a. s.
On 3 Feb 1997 08:26:56 GMT, danas...@aol.com (DanaS64562) wrote:
->In Act I scene vi of Edward Forsett+s 1581 Latin comedy Pedantius, acted
->at Trinity College Cambridge, Lydia says to Pedantius Lyd. Hei! Nonne,
->nonne, no, Pedanti.
for myself and those who also do not have Latin, is there a defination of the
last 5 words?
Thanks much!
DanaS64562
In his elaborate Gilbert Harvey-like way Pedantius has just asked Lydia to
hop in the sack. What she says is spelled in a Latin way but her meaning
is precisely as in English: NO!!!!
EmilyW...@thecooperschool.co.uk
> In act iv scene v of Hamlet Ophelia says "Hey non nonny, nonny, hey
> nonny"
>
> A student of mine pointed out that these words also appear in Lear and
> one other play. I don't remember which she said, but I know it was a
> comedy. Is there a source to these lines? Do they appear elsewhere?
John W Kennedy
--
John W Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"