• Source: Girls and Boys Come Out to Play
    • "Girls and Boys Come Out to Play" or "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" is a nursery rhyme that has existed since at least 1708. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5452.


      Lyrics


      The most common versions of the rhyme are very similar to that collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century:

      Other versions often put boys before girls in the opening line.
      Here are the melody for the first two lines.


      History


      The verse may date back to the time when children were expected to work during the daylight hours, and play was reserved for late in the evening. The first two lines at least appeared in dance books (1708, 1719, 1728), satires (1709, 1725), and a political broadside (1711). It appeared in the earliest extant collection of nursery rhymes, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London around 1744. The 1744 version included the first six lines.


      Notes

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