Ring-a-Round the Rhymes: The Dark History Behind Nursery Rhymes

Twinkle twinkle little star, oh how I wonder what you mean. We have been raised on nursery rhymes. The simple wording and catchy rhythm help these rhymes stick in kids’ minds, shaping their early development without them even realising it. It is no surprise that nursery rhymes are taught worldwide. But these innocent words have a darker origin than you may think.

Here are some popular nursery rhymes with meanings way different from what we believe

 

• Baa Baa Black Sheep

Baa-baa black sheep, do you have any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full

One for the master, one for the dame

One for the little boy who lives down the lane

Baa-baa black sheep, do you have any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

It had been theorised that Baa Baa Black Sheep was about chattel slavery in America. The slaves were considered the sheep, and wool as cotton, which is why black has been substituted for other colours in recent recitations. However, the nursery rhyme predates the United States of America. This rhyme was first mentioned in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, a book published in 1744, thirty years before America gained independence. It is speculated that the rhyme was a complaint about the Great Wool Tax that King Edward I enforced back in 1275. The tax was to cover war expenses, and wool was taxed heavily as it was the greatest export. A sizable portion of the earnings would go to the King as per the new tax laws; the King was the master of the land, hence, “one bag for the master”. During that era, churches would collect a tithe. Tithe was an obligatory payment made to help in religious functions; Some historians suggest that the Church is often symbolically referred to as the ‘Bride of Christ,’ which may explain why the rhyme refers to the recipient as “the dame”. Alas, the remaining profit went to “the little boy down the lane”, who is believed to be the farmer himself. It is also noteworthy that black wool had less demand, as black wool would not catch dye.

• Ring Around the Roses

Ring around the roses / Ring-a ring-a roses

A pocket full of posies

A-tishoo, a-tishoo / Ashes, ashes

We all fall down.

Ring Around the Roses, or Ring-a Ring-a Roses, is a popular nursery rhyme kids say while going in a circle, hand in hand, and sitting down at the last line. Though this rhyme is a reminder about the childhood joy of playing with friends, the actual words may be about death. It is speculated that this popular nursery rhyme is about the Black Plague that took place in London in 1665. The first line has less to do with actual flowers and more to do with the symptoms of the plague. The victims had lumps as red as roses on their skin, known as buboes. These buboes were the “ring around roses”. The plague killed 15 per cent of the population, due to which, there was poor management of the dead. Dead bodies were left to rot in the open all over town. People would roam around with “pockets full of posies” and other fresh flowers to cover up the stench of corpses around them. With the oral passing of rhymes, there are bound to be changes in the words. The nursery rhyme as a whole has multiple variations, and even debate over what it is called, but the third line has two distinct variations. “A-tishoo, a-tishoo” has a straightforward meaning. It's meant to replicate someone sneezing (like achoo), which makes sense as the rhyme is all about sickness. The alternative, “ashes, ashes”, is about how people were unceremoniously cremated in groups. Piles of dead bodies were dumped in a ditch where they were collectively burnt. No rites, no tradition, just ashes. Finally, “we all fall down” refers to how so many people were dying together.

• London Bridge is Falling Down

London Bridge is falling down,

Falling down, falling down.

London Bridge is falling down,

My fair lady. 

The origin of London Bridge is Falling Down has been highly debated across centuries. This four-lined rhyme, three of which are just the same line repeated, has led to several theories. Samuel Liang proposed that the rhyme was about a Viking raid led by Olaf I that broke the bridge. This theory was backed by the mention of “London Bridge is broken down” in a Norse saga. There was a quick connection, but the theory of the raiding and breaking of the bridge by the Vikings didn’t stick, as there wasn’t much proof of the raid to begin with. Another theory was introduced by Alice Berta Gomme that proposed the idea of people in the bridge structure. Back then, there was a practice of immurement, meaning the people were enclosed in structures alive and left to die from starvation or lack of oxygen as a punishment. It was suggested that this act would make the structure more sturdy and less likely to break again. This theory is also not likely, as to this day, there haven’t been any corpses found within the walls of the London Bridge. Likely, the meaning of the nursery rhyme isn’t as dramatic as people wanted it to be. And that it could simply be about how the bridge had broken several times for reasons as simple as wear-and-tear. This is especially likely since shops on the bridge turned it into a busy marketplace.

• Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maids all in a row.

In Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, the Mary in question is Mary I, commonly known as Bloody Mary. Daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary grew bitter because of the way her father treated her mother. When she ascended the throne, she sought aggressive ways of reversing her father’s ways as an act of revenge. Her rule was considered “contrary” to her father’s policies. England was the “garden” that she grew. She forced Catholicism upon a previously Protestant kingdom.  The ”silver bells” and “cockle shells”, though innocent-sounding words to what appear to be innocent gardening terms, may have been torture devices that she used to punish people who refused to convert. And the “pretty maids all in a row” may denote how there were lines of non-Catholics waiting to get executed.

• Three Blind Mice

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.

See how they run. See how they run.

They all ran after the farmer’s wife,

Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,

Did you ever see such a sight in your life,

As three blind mice?

Imagine a reign so brutal that you get two nursery rhymes about you. Three Blind Mice is once again about Mary I and her gruesome executions of non-Catholics in England. But unlike Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, this rhyme is about a specific event. The “three blind mice” were prominent Protestant Bishops who plotted to overthrow her. Namely, they were Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer.  As punishment, they were rumoured to have been dismembered and blinded before being burnt at the stake. “Cut off their tails” could mean literally, the dismembering, or metaphorically, how they were stripped of their powers. Witnessing this event unfold was “such a sight in your life”, as it was such a high-profile case.

• Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty started as a witty riddle. The portrayal of Humpty as an egg-man is actually the answer to that riddle: what can be so fragile that it can be easily broken but not fixed after? An egg. This rhyme has two theories. Firstly, it was theorised that Humpty was based on King Richard III of England, who was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. The “wall” that the King had a “great fall” from was actually about him losing all his powers after the crushing defeat. “The king's horses and all the king's men” who “couldn’t put Humpty together again” were the king’s army that failed to win the war and protect the crown. Secondly, another theory believes that Humpty isn’t based on a person at all; instead, it's about a weapon of destruction, a cannon. During the English Civil War in 1648 (the siege of Colchester), a large cannon was mounted on a church wall in the city. Though powerful, the cannon that “sat on the usele, “had a great fall” when the wall was hit and was rendered useless as it was too heavy for any of the soldiers to move or fix and “put Humpty together again”.

Throughout this article, I have used dismissive language, as there isn’t much concrete evidence of the true origins of the aforementioned nursery rhymes. But this is the beauty of oral tradition. History that gets passed down through generations, not just to learn but also to entertain. It's human nature for people to derive different meanings from the same words; however, this allows the truth to get diluted. With the spread of rhymes across languages and cultures, the true meaning gets lost, which develops common misconceptions. Jack and Jill is a popular example, as it is commonly believed that the rhyme was about King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s beheading, but the rhyme predates their rule. Nursery rhymes have been an integral part of our childhood. No one would have expected young kids to sing about spine-tingling deaths. But this article has shown that words are usually deeper than they seem.