Children's Nursery Rhymes

Last night, Jeff and I were dancing around singing children's nursery rhymes. As we were goofing off and talking, we embarked the topic of little children's rhymes having a negative meaning behind the cute rhyming words. I got online today, and looked up the origin of a few of them...

Ring around the rosies,
Pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down.

Ring around the Rosies, is about the black plague- the symptom of which included circles around the eyes (ring around the rosies), and coughing up dried blood from the lungs, resembling ashes. The pocket full of posies was a medieval belief that posies held some curative measures against the plague, so carrying around that flower would keep you safe. Finally, the last line spells out the unavoidable ending to the story, of everyone falling down, dead. (Ahhh...so adorable.)


Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after

The roots of this poem, of Jack and Jill are in France. Jack and Jill referred to are said to be King Louis XVI - Jack -who was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette - Jill - (who came tumbling after). The words and lyrics to the Jack and Jill poem were made more acceptable as a story for children by providing a happy ending! The actual beheadings occurred in during the Reign of Terror in 1793. The first publication date for the lyrics of Jack and Jill rhyme is 1795 - which ties-in with the history and origins. ( C'mon Poppet...let's sing about people being beheaded...)


Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row

The Mary referred to in this nursery rhyme is supposed to be Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary, who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Queen Mary was a strong Catholic and the garden referred to is an allusion to graveyards which were increasing in size with those who dared to continue to object to the Protestant faith - Protestant martyrs.

The silver bells and cockle shells referred to in the Nursery Rhyme were colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' were thumbscrews which crushed the thumb between two hard surfaces by the tightening of a screw. The 'cockleshells'...well, I'm not even going to go there. The " Maids" or Maiden was the original guillotine! The 'maids' were a device to behead people called the Maiden. Beheading a victim was fraught with problems. It could take up to 11 blows to actually sever the head, the victim often resisted and had to be chased around the scaffold. These problems led to the invention of a mechanical instrument (now known as the guillotine) called the Maiden - shortened to Maids in the Mary Mary Nursery Rhyme. (...This is my personal favorite. lol, I'm KIDDING!)

Isn't this horrible?!? And these nursery rhymes are what we are teaching young children to sing.