Dame Durden

A traditional English folksong and children's rhyme dating to the early nineteenth century. The song describes the cheerful household of Dame Durden, who keeps five serving maids and five labouring men, all of whom pair off playfully on Valentine's Day morning. The song circulated for over a century without accompaniment of instruments. It appears in Victorian literature. It is the nickname of Esther Summerson, a character in Charles Dickens 1953 Novel Bleak House. 

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