Goes the Weasel" (Roud 5249) is a traditional old English song, a country dance, nursery rhyme, and singing game that emerged in the mid-19th century.

[2][4] In the early 1850s, Miller and Beacham of Baltimore published sheet music for "Pop goes the Weasel for Fun and Frolic".

[9] On 28 December 1852, an advertisement in The Times promoted a publication that included "the new dance recently introduced with such distinguished success at the Court balls" and contained "the original music and a full explanation of the figures by Mons.

[3] A modern music historian notes, "This bravura version introduces the theme as a jig, as in the original, but the variations are in 2/4 and 4/4, much better for showing off fast fingerwork.

[14][15][6] By late 1854, lyrics were added to the well-known tune, with the first singing performance possibly at the Grecian Theatre.

[16][17] In 1855, The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in England and Wales wrote that the song, commonly played by hand–organs on the streets, had "senseless words".

[18] In their monthly newsletter, the society referred to the song as "street music" on the level of "negro tunes", saying it was "contagious and pestilent".

[18] In another newsletter, the society wrote, "Worst of all.. almost every species of ribaldry and low wit has been rendered into rhyme to suit it.

"[19] In 1856, a letter to The Morning Post read, "For many months, everybody has been bored to death with the eternal grinding of this ditty on street.

"[20] Since at least the late 19th century, the nursery rhyme was used with a British children's game similar to musical chairs.

[12] In America, the tune became a standard in minstrel shows, featuring additional verses that frequently covered politics.

[3] Charley Twigg published his minstrel show arrangement in 1855 with the refrain "Pop goes de weasel.".

[3][21] On 24 December 1852, the newspaper, the Gloucester Journal reported "A new dance has been introduced by a Frenchman—it is called "Pop goes the Weasel", and from the title should be a comical affair".

That Frenchman was probably either Eugène Coulon or Louis-Antoine Jullien, as four days later in The Times, London, music publishers Jullien & Co. advertised "Pop goes the Weasel: the new dance recently introduced ...is now published with the original music and a full explanation of the figures, by Mons.

[25] The March 1860 issue of the Southern Literary Messenger published a new verse: Queen Victoria's very sick, Prince Albert's got the measles.

[1][26][17] One writer notes, "Weasels do pop their heads up when disturbed and it is quite plausible that this was the source of the name of the dance.

"[1] Just like the dancers to this jig, the spinner's weasel revolves, but to measure the thread or yarn produced on a spinning wheel.

[27] The weasel's wooden gears are designed to make a popping sound after the 40th revolution to tell the spinner that the skein is completed.

[26][28][29][6] Iona and Peter Opie observed that no one seemed to know what the phrase meant at the height of the dance craze in the 1850s.

[17] The "Eagle" on City Road in the song's second verse may refer to a famous pub in London.

[34][35][5] As one writer concludes, "So the second verse says that visiting the Eagle causes one's money to vanish, necessitating a trip up the City Road to Uncle [the pawn shop] to raise some cash.

[citation needed] It also might refer to the actual animal, commonly associated with the organ grinders who played this jig.

[5] With some versions and interpretations of the lyrics, "pop goes the weasel" is said to be erotic or ribald, including a crude metaphor for sexual intercourse.

[18][36] In her autobiographical novel Little House in the Big Woods (1932), American author Laura Ingalls Wilder recalled her father singing these lyrics in 1873: All around the cobbler's bench, The monkey chased the weasel.