Meanings of Nursery Rhymes
Many nursery rhymes have been argued to have hidden meanings and origins. John Bellenden Ker (?1765–1842), for example, wrote four volumes arguing that English nursery rhymes were actually written in 'Low Saxon', a hypothetical early form of Dutch. He then 'translated' them back into English, revealing in particular a strong tendency to anti-clericalism. Many of the ideas about the links between rhymes and historical persons, or events, can be traced back to Katherine Elwes's book The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930), in which she linked famous nursery-rhyme characters with real people, on little or no evidence. She assumed that children's songs were a peculiar form of coded historical narrative, propaganda or covert protest, and rarely considered that they could have been written simply for entertainment.
| Title | Supposed origin | Earliest date known | Meaning supported by evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" | The slave trade; medieval wool tax | c. 1744 (Britain) | Medieval taxes were much lower than two thirds. There is no evidence of a connection with slavery. |
| "Doctor Foster" | Edward I of England | 1844 (Britain) | Given the recent recording the medieval meaning is unlikely. |
| "Goosey Goosey Gander" | Henry VIII of England | 1784 (Britain) | No evidence that it is linked to the propaganda campaign against the Catholic Church during the reign of King Henry VIII. |
| "The Grand Old Duke of York" | Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York in the Wars of the Roses; James II of England, or Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Flanders campaign of 1794–5. | 1913 (Britain) | The more recent campaign is more likely, but first record is very late. The song may be based on a song about the king of France. |
| "Humpty Dumpty" | Richard III of England; Cardinal Wolsey and a cannon from the English Civil War | 1797 (Britain) | No evidence that it refers to any historical character and is originally a riddle found in many European cultures. The story about the cannon is based on a spoof verse written in 1956. |
| "Jack and Jill" | Norse mythology; Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette | 1765 (Britain) | No evidence that it stretches back to early medieval era and poem predates the French Revolution. |
| "Little Boy Blue" | Thomas Wolsey | c. 1760 (Britain) | Unknown, the identification is speculative. |
| "Little Jack Horner" | Dissolution of the Monasteries | 1725 (Britain), but story known from c. 1520 | The rhyme may have been adapted to satirise Thomas Horner who benefited from the Dissolution, but the connection is speculative. |
| "London Bridge Is Falling Down" | Burial of children in foundations; burning of wooden bridge by Vikings | 1659 (Britain) | Unknown, but verse exists in many cultures and may have been adapted to London when it reached England. |
| "Mary Had a Little Lamb" | An original poem by Sarah Josepha Hale inspired by an actual incident. | 1830 (USA) | As a girl, Mary Sawyer (later Mrs. Mary Tyler) kept a pet lamb, which she took to school one day at the suggestion of her brother. |
| "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" | Mary, Queen of Scots, or Mary I of England | c. 1744 (Britain) | Unknown, all identifications are speculative. |
| "Old King Cole" | Various early medieval kings and Richard Cole-brook a Reading clothier | 1708-9 (Britain) | Richard Cole-brook was widely known as King Cole in the seventeenth century. |
| "Ring a Ring o' Roses" | Black Death (1348) or The Great Plague (1665) | 1790 (Britain) | No evidence that the poem has any relation to the plague. The 'plague' references are not present in the earliest versions. |
| "Rock-a-bye Baby" | The Egyptian god Horus; Native American childcare; anti-Jacobite satire | c. 1765 (Britain) | Unknown, all identifications are speculative. |
| "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" | Queen Caroline of Ansbach; Elizabeth Vergoose of Boston. | 1784 (Britain) | Unknown, all identifications are speculative. |
| "Three Blind Mice" | Mary I of England | c. 1609 (Britain) | Unknown, the identification is speculative. |
| "Who Killed Cock Robin?" | Norse mythology; Robin Hood; William Rufus; Robert Walpole; Ritual bird sacrifice | c. 1744 (Britain) | The story, and perhaps rhyme, dates from at least the later medieval era, but all identifications are speculative. |
Read more about this topic: Nursery Rhyme
Famous quotes containing the words nursery rhymes, meanings of, meanings, nursery and/or rhymes:
“Yes, I know.
Death sits with his key in my lock.
Not one day is taken for granted.
Even nursery rhymes have put me in hock.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Our mother gives us our earliest lessons in love—and its partner, hate. Our father—our “second other”Melaborates on them. Offering us an alternative to the mother-baby relationship . . . presenting a masculine model which can supplement and contrast with the feminine. And providing us with further and perhaps quite different meanings of lovable and loving and being loved.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)
“You can’t write about people out of textbooks, and you can’t use jargon. You have to speak clearly and simply and purely in a language that a six-year-old child can understand; and yet have the meanings and the overtones of language, and the implications, that appeal to the highest intelligence.”
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980)
“... we have broken down the self-respecting spirit of man with nursery tales and priestly threats, and we dare to assert, that in proportion as we have prostrated our understanding and degraded our nature, we have exhibited virtue, wisdom, and happiness, in our words, our actions, and our lives!”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“Like a French poem is life; being only perfect in structure
When with the masculine rhymes mingled the feminine are.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)