A
Soul, soul for a souling cake
I pray you, missis, for a souling cake
Apple or pear, plum or cherry
Anything good to make us merry
Up with your kettles and down with your pans
Give us an answer and we'll be gone
Little Jack, Jack sat on his gate
Crying for butter to butter his cake
One for St. Peter, two for St. Paul
Three for the man that made us all
(Shropshire: Bye-Gones Relating to Wales & the Border Country (1889-1890), 253)
Begging at All Souls was already proverbial in Shakespeare's time, as Speed comments in Two Gentlemen of Verona (II. i)—‘to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas’. The soul-cakes mentioned in the song are the remnant of pre-Reformation beliefs concerning the need to help souls out of Purgatory by prayer and alms-giving. John Mirk's Festival (14th century) provides an early reference: ‘… wherefore in olden time good men and women would this day buy bread and deal (give) it for the souls that they loved, hoping with each loaf to get a soul out of purgatory’ (p. 269). Denham, writing of the north of England, implies that by the mid-19th century the practice was on its last legs: ‘A few thrifty, elderly housewives still practice the old custom of keeping a soul mass-cake for good luck …’ (Denham Tracts, 1895: ii. 26).
Two other visiting customs took place in roughly the same geographical area, Clementing (23 November), and Catterning (25 November, St Catherine's Day), with the same basic pattern of visiting, singing, and requesting food, although Catterning was apparently regarded as more of a female custom. Charlotte Burne argued persuasively that these three were all aspects of the same custom. Clementing was first mentioned by Plot (1686: 430), and Catterning in 1730 (quoted Wright and Lones, 1940: iii. 168). Of the three customs, Souling was the most widely reported.
Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.
- Wright and Lones, 1940:
iii. 121-45, 167-86 - Charlotte Burne, Folk-Lore
25 (1914), 285-99
