By Robert A. Waters
Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
One for my master, one for the dame,
One for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Hiding behind nursery rhyme lyrics are stories--old stories, stories of mystery and suspense, and sometimes stories of subtle resistance to tyranny. These poems and songs circulated among the peasants of olde England from the 1400s to the 1800s. No one knows who wrote them, they just appeared out of the dark.
For instance, the well-known nursery rhyme posted above chronicled a real event. Clemency Burton-Hill, in "The dark side of nursery rhymes," wrote that "Baa, Baa Black Sheep is about the medieval wool tax, imposed in the 13th century by King Edward I. Under the new rules, a third of the cost of a sack of wool went to him, another third went to the church and the last to the farmer. (In the original version, nothing was left for the little shepherd boy who lives down the lane.)"
The wool farmer ended up having to pay a suffocating sixty-six per cent of his earnings in taxes. Resentment led someone to come up with the jingle that we all know and love.
The nursery rhyme, "Oranges and Lemons," refers to a condemned man walking to his execution past famous churches in downtown London.
Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clement's.
You owe me five farthings say the bells of St. Martin's.
When will you pay me say the bells of Old Bailey?
When I grow rich say the bells of Shoreditch.
And when will that be say the bells of Stepney.
Oh, I do not know say the great bells of Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head.
Nursery rhymes are found in all cultures throughout the world. A compilation of English nursery rhymes was first published in 1744. Later editions, including Mother Goose, kept the poems alive. Many have been sanitized through the years until they became what we know today.
Nursery rhymes have been deemed important to the cognitive development of children. Infants-to-adults enjoy the rhymes, the music, and the rich tapestry of Medieval England. Yet, in the background behind a few words may exist murderous plots and deeds. For instance, "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" has a gruesome history.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary.
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.
Burton-Hill writes that "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary may be about Bloody Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and concerns the torture and murder of Protestants. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and the 'garden' here is an allusion to the graveyards which were filling with Protestant martyrs. The 'silver bells' were thumbscrews; while 'cockleshells' are believed to be instruments of torture which were attached to male genitals."
The meanings of many nursery rhymes are unknown. For instance, "Humpty Dumpty" may refer to King Richard III, a humpback who was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1845. Or Humpty Dumpty could be a cannon ball, or some unknown king, an egg, or a dozen other things. We just don't know. Scholars make their guesses, right or wrong.
Maybe it's just as well that we're kept in the dark. Meanwhile, children love to sing and recite these sometimes nonsensical tales. And that's good--it helps them to learn language skills.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a big fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
In my opinion, those few words were written by a genius. I'll leave it at that.
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