The origin of Nursery Rhymes By R.E. Perry

Nursery rhymes often seem like cute nonsense poems for children; but they started out, in many cases, as deadly serious satire for adults. Let’s look at some examples:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With Silver bells, and Cockle shells,

And pretty maids, all in a row.

This rhyme is said to be about “Bloody Mary”, during the sixteenth century. Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragorn was Catholic in a largely Protestant country. She did everything in her power to convert the Protestants to Catholicism, including mass imprisonment and torture. The “Silver bells” were a torture device that crushed a person’s thumbs, “Cockle shells” crushed the genitals, and the guillotine was called a “Maiden.”

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner

Eating his Christmas pie

He stuck in a thumb, and pulled out a plum

And said,“What a good boy am I!”

Little Jack Horner, was actually Thomas Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury at the time of Henry VIII. The story goes, that the abbot was concerned that King Henry might confiscate Glastonbury, and sent a bribe with his steward to prevent this; a pie, with the deeds to twelve manor houses owned by the Abbacy. But on the trip, Thomas broke into the pie, and took one of the deeds for himself; the deed to Mells Manor. The intended bribe did not work; King Henry did end up taking over Glastonbury, together with most of the monasteries of Britain. But the Horner family still owns Mells Manor today—which they assure everyone their ancestor purchased, fair and square.

All around the cobbler’s bench

The monkey chased the weasel,

The monkey thought ‘twas jolly good fun

Pop! Goes the weasel.

A penny for a spool of thread, a penny for a needle

That’s the way the money goes—

Pop! Goes the weasel.

This little song is about poverty in the English lower classes, and is full of cockney slang.

“Pop” is cockney slang for to pawn. The “weasel” is cockney slang for a coat. The concept is that you had to have your good coat for Sunday church, but you could pawn it on Monday, and plan to get it back by the end of the week.

Georgy Porgie, pudden and pie

Kissed the girls and made them cry.

When the boys came out to play,

Georgy Porgie ran away.

This poem about the hapless Georgie, is thought to be about George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, who was a notorious playboy. He had an affair with Anne of Austria, the Queen consort of France, and later got involved sexually with King Charles I. The King, enamoured by George, gave him a lot of power, and made him a “Gentleman of the Bedchamber”. (no kidding!) The affair went on for some time, until Parliament got sick of the relationship and told George to get lost; which he did. “…Georgy Porgie ran away…”

Ring around the rosy

A pocket full of posies

Husha! Husha!

We all fall down.

The story is that this little rhyme originated during the time of the Bubonic plague, from June to September of 1348. The ring of rosy, referred to the characteristic rash of the plague. People would carry around herbs, hoping that these could protect them from the dread disease. Husha! Husha! Refers to the sneezing characteristic of the illness, and “We all fall down” speaks for itself about the horrible aftermath, where 40 to 60 percent of the British population died in this pandemic.

It’s a great story, but apparently, it isn’t so—at least according to Snopes--who researched the rhyme, and found it to be of much more recent origin than the time of the plague.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,

See how they run! See how they run!

They all ran after the farmer’s wife

She cut off their tails with a carving knife

Did you ever see such a sight in your life?

As three blind mice.

Bill Holohan tells us that this song, a version of which was published in 1609, refers to three Protestant martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, who were accused of trying to overthrow Bloody Mary Tudor, and were burned at the stake as a result. They are called “blind” because they had rejected Catholicism. The “farmer’s wife” in the poem is Bloody Mary, who did more than cut off their tails.

So much for the sweet little rhymes of childhood. Many of them were actually subversive ditties lampooning royalty and the aristocracy—a highly dangerous activity except in the guise of a playful children’s song. They are, however, still fun to recite or sing.

If you enjoyed this story, please give me a heart or a tip.

My sources are in the following links:

https://www.cracked.com/article_16576_the-disturbing-origins-5-common-nursery-rhymes.html#

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ring-around-rosie/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/origin-story-three-blind-mice-bill-holohan/