Nursery Rhyme Histories

Nursery Rhyme Histories: Children's verses are often claimed to be coded accounts of plagues, kings and scandals. Folklorists have found that most of these tidy explanations appeared long after the rhymes themselves, yet a few verses do preserve real street cries, old customs and political mockery.

Ring a Ring o' Roses: The popular belief that it describes the Great Plague of 1665 is a twentieth century idea. The earliest print version dates to 1881, and folklorists point out it appears in several forms with no mention of illness.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary: A popular theory claims the garden of silver bells and cockle shells refers to Mary I of England and her persecutions. The rhyme first appears in print in 1744, and the connection has never been proven.

Humpty Dumpty: The rhyme began as a riddle, and the answer was never stated as an egg in early versions. The tale that Humpty was a cannon during the 1648 Siege of Colchester comes from a 1956 piece by David Daube, written as a spoof.

Baa Baa Black Sheep: Some historians link the three bags to a medieval English wool tax of 1275 that divided wool among the king, the church and the farmer. The rhyme was printed in 1744 and its tune is borrowed from a French melody.

Pop Goes the Weasel: In Cockney slang, pop means to pawn and weasel and stoat means coat. Many read it as a verse about a poor Londoner pawning his best coat to cover the rent.

London Bridge: The tune is a fixture, but its origins are murky. A line about London Bridge being broken down appeared as early as the 1600s, and a story about Vikings pulling the bridge down in 1014 has been repeated though evidence is weak.

Oranges and Lemons: This rhyme lists London church bells, including St Clement Danes. The ominous last lines about a candle to light you to bed and a chopper to chop off your head may be part of a children's game.

Jack and Jill: One theory ties the broken crown to Louis XVI, who lost his head in 1793. The verse was printed in the 1760s, which complicates this claim, and some scholars link it to older Scandinavian tales.

Goosey Goosey Gander: A common explanation says the verse mocks the hunting of Catholic priests during the Reformation, who hid in priest holes. Evidence for this reading is thin and the rhyme is not documented before the 1700s.

Little Jack Horner: Legend says Thomas Horner, steward of the Abbot of Glastonbury, carried a pie with the deeds of twelve manors during Henry VIII's dissolution, and kept the deed to one for himself. The Horner family has long disputed the story.

Old King Cole: No one is sure who the merry old soul was. Candidates include a legendary British king named Coel, and the verse is first recorded in the early 1700s.

Three Blind Mice: The round was published in 1609 by Thomas Ravenscroft. A popular but unproven reading links the blind mice to three Protestant bishops burned under Mary I and the farmer's wife to the queen herself.

Sing a Song of Sixpence: Live birds baked in a pie were a real banquet spectacle in the Renaissance, and old recipe books describe it. Theories that it hides pirate codes or Henry VIII's marriages lack evidence.

Rock a Bye Baby: An early version of the lullaby was printed in 1765. Stories about it describing a royal succession scandal or Native American cradles in trees are popular but unproven.

Hickory Dickory Dock: Exeter Cathedral has a medieval astronomical clock with a small hole cut in the door beneath it, said to be for the cat. The rhyme was printed in 1744 and fits the clock's story nicely.

Little Miss Muffet: A legend claims the verse concerns Patience Muffet, stepdaughter of entomologist Thomas Moffet, who wrote about spiders. The rhyme did not appear until 1805, long after Moffet's death.

Yankee Doodle: British soldiers used it to mock American colonists, with macaroni meaning a fashionable dandy. Colonists embraced the tune as their own, and it later became the official state song of Connecticut.

Grand Old Duke of York: The verse is often tied to Prince Frederick, Duke of York, whose 1790s Flanders campaign ended in retreat. Others suggest much older dukes, and the rhyme's true target is debated.

Jack Be Nimble: Candle jumping was a real old English custom, tied to lacemakers and to luck. A candle that stayed lit during the leap was said to bring good fortune for the year.

Ding Dong Bell: The rhyme about a cat in a well is old, and Shakespeare echoes the phrase ding dong bell in The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice. It shows how long such verses were already circulating.

Mary Had a Little Lamb: Sarah Josepha Hale published the poem in 1830, and a Massachusetts girl named Mary Sawyer is said to be the real Mary. In 1877 Thomas Edison recited it into his phonograph, making it one of the first recorded spoken lines.

Doctor Foster: Some say it recalls King Edward I of England in Gloucester falling into a puddle in the 1200s. There is no firm evidence for this, and the rhyme may simply be a joke about a muddy walk.

Hot Cross Buns: This is a street vendor's call, and a version appears in print in 1733 in a London almanac. The buns became tied to Good Friday, and the rhyme preserves how food was once advertised by shouting.

Lucy Locket: A tale links the verse to Kitty Fisher, a famous eighteenth century courtesan painted by Joshua Reynolds. Historians treat the identification as folklore, and Lucy Locket may be a fictional name.