You may have the understandable impression that nursery rhymes are little poems about everyday life in the past or imaginative little ditties to entertain when all else fails in the waiting room of the doctor's surgery. I have sung them, my mother sung them to me and Grandma to her, most likely. But have you ever thought about how these apparently innocent little rhymes originated?
Take Georgie Porgie, for example. He was King James I of England's lover. His real name was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Georgie also had an affair with the then Queen of France. His romance with Anne of Austria is mentioned in the famous novel "The Three Musketeers", by Alexander Dumus.
Ring a Ring o' Roses is a little poem about the Bubonic Plague, more commonly known as The Black Death. The "ring of roses" refers to the patches of red spots which appeared on one's body at the onset of the disease. A "pocket full of posies" were little bunches of flowers people took around to warn people that they were ill. The sneezes were the last sign, then you fell down - DEAD.
Another rhyme based on British history is Three Blind Mice. The "farmer's wife" mentioned was the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I, a staunch Catholic who ran after any protestant she could find. So much so, she became known as "Bloody Mary". Her husband was King Philip of Spain. The "three blind mice" were three noblemen who adhered to their protestant faith and were subsequently burnt at the stake.
Bloody Mary is also the "Mary" featured in the rhyme Mary, Mary, quite contrary. The "garden" was an ever growing graveyard of protestant martyrs, "silver bells and cockle shells" were instruments of torture and the "maids" or "maiden" was the original name for the guillotine.
Goosey, Goosey, Gander is another song about disturbances between Catholics and Protestants, Little Boy Blue was Thomas Wolsey, an apparently very rich and arrogant cardinal during the reign of King Henry VIII, London Bridge is Falling Down is an allegory concerning Anne Boleyn, Humpty Dumpty was not an egg, but a cannon, or maybe King Richard III, Jack Sprat is said to refer to King Charles I, Jack and Jill were King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette of France...
I could go on. As you can see, they are not the most adequate thing to be singing to your baby!
There are some fun ones, however. For example, Polly Put the Kettle On, Little Miss Muffet and Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock, 1,2, Buckle My Shoe, Pussycat, Pussycat, etc.
Just check them out before repeating them to your little ones! Here is a useful web:
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/
