Nursery Rhymes

Q. What are they all about, then

A. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable defines them as: 'The traditional metrical jingles learnt by children "in the nursery" and frequently used in their games.' All of which, of course, we all know. As to what they're 'all about', they contain survivals of old folklore and ancient superstitions as well as historical and contemporary references, so, despite the fact that they are generally sung to and by children, scratch the surface of any nursery rhyme and you'll reveal a much more complex adult history. These rhymes were often born out of a desire to instruct, teach or pass on a moral or historical lesson.

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Q. Why are they always so grim and grisly

A. Don't you mean Grimm

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Q. Grimm

A. As in the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, the German philologists and folklorists, who in 1814 published the first volume of the Kinder und Hausm�rchen, translated into English as Grimms' Fairy Tales.

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Q. Those aren't nursery rhymes. So...

A. True, they aren't nursery rhymes, but they are folk tales that survived in an oral tradition for centuries. And both nursery rhymes and folk tales are often are pretty grisly - and if you think of the use of children chanting and simple nursery rhyme-style tunes in recent horror films, you can see that the idea that there's something inherently spooky about such ditties lives on. Still, some of the better-known English nursery rhymes have their origins in certifiable historical fact, and no doubt began as methods of commemorating cataclysmic events.

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Q. Examples

A. 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses' and 'London's Burning' spring immediately to mind. The former commemorates the Plague. The 'ring of roses' refers to the flower-like rash which was the first symptom of the disease; the 'pocketful of posies' to the flowers worn to ward off the smell both of the dead bodies and of the stench which was believed to be the cause of the illness; 'Atichoo' because cold and flu symptoms were the sign of advanced bubonic plague; and 'we all fall down' - well, do you need to have it explained

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'London's Burning' remembers the Great Fire of London in 1666, in which a large part of the City of London, including most of the civic buildings, old St. Paul's Cathedral, 87 parish churches and about 13,000 houses were destroyed. Pretty big stuff.

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Q. Are there any older rhymes than these

A. The oral tradition of nursery rhymes is ancient. Some of the oldest rhymes are probably those accompanying babies' games, such as 'Handy, dandy, prickly, pandy, which hand will you have ', first recorded in 1598, and the existence of numerous European parallels for 'Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home' and for the singing game 'London Bridge Is Falling Down' and for the riddle-rhyme 'Humpty-Dumpty' suggests the possibility that these rhymes come down from very ancient sources, since direct translation is unlikely. However, such relics of the past are exceptional and most nursery rhymes date from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

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The earliest known published collection of English nursery rhymes was Tommy Thumb's (Pretty) Song Book of 1744, which included the familiar favourites 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' and 'Who Killed Cock Robin ' However, the best-known early collection was Mother Goose's Melody: or Sonnets for the Cradle, published in 1781. Among its 51 rhymes were 'Jack and Jill', 'Ding Dong Bell' and 'Hush-a-bye baby on the tree top'.

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Q. And who was this Mother Goose

A. There is a legend in the USA that Mother Goose was an actual Boston woman, Elizabeth Goose, whose grave in Boston's Old Granary Burying Ground is still a tourist attraction. However this is just good marketing by the local tourist board, as no evidence of the book of rhymes she supposedly wrote in 1719 has ever been found. The first US edition of the Mother Goose rhymes was a straight reprint of the British edition, published in 1785.

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It seems that the actual origin of the name Mother Goose derives from the title of a French collection of fairy tales, Contes de ma m�re l'oye (1697). It seems ma m�re l'oie, or 'my mother the goose', is a French equivalent of an old wives' tale.

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Q. Presumably the repertoire is added to on a regular basis

A. Indeed. Some well-established faves are relatively recent, such as 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', which first appeared in print in 1806 and 1830 respectively. More recently still, sometime in the early 1980s, a particularly sinister corporate fast-food rhyme appeared, which you will find most of today's children are familiar with. In an effort to avoid giving the companies in question further free advertising space we won't recite the rhyme, but it involves well-known US burger, pizza and fried chicken 'restaurant' chains with accompanying hand movements.

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See also the answerbank articles on nonsense poets, McDonalds and old wives' tales

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By Simon Smith