So you thought that when you learnt nursery rhymes as a child, they had no meaning ecept to rhyme? Think again…
I once heard about the history of ‘Ring around the posy’ on an old show called ‘Sapphire and Steel’, in which David McCallum tells the gruesome history behind this poem…
Here are a few:
**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! **
History:
Humpty Dumpty was a colloquial term used in fifteenth century England describing someone who was obese. This has given rise to various, but inaccurate, theories surrounding the identity of Humpty Dumpty. The image of Humpty Dumpty, similar to our picture on the left, was made famous by the illustration included in the ‘Alice through the looking glass’ novel by Lewis Carroll. However, Humpty Dumpty was not a person pilloried in the famous rhyme. Humpty Dumpty was in fact a huge canon!
The canon, Humpty Dumpty, was strategically placed on the protective wall of “St Mary’s Wall Church” in Colchester, England. During the English Civil War ( 1642 - 1649) the town of Colchester was fiercely fought for by the Roundheads and Cavaliers. A shot from a Parliamentary canon succeeded in damaging the wall beneath Humpty Dumpty which caused the canon to tumble to the ground. The Royalists, or Cavaliers, ‘all the King’s men’ attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall. However, because the canon , or Humpty Dumpty, was so heavy ’
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again!’ This had a drastic consequence for the Royalists as the strategically important town of Colchester fell to the Parliamentarians after a siege lasting eleven weeks.
Earliest traceable publication 1810.
Ring around the rosy
A pocketful of posies
“Ashes, Ashes”
We all fall down!
Origins of “Ring around the rosy” in English History
The words to the Ring around the rosy children’s ring game have their origin in English history . The historical period dates back to the great plague of London in 1665 (bubonic plague). The symptoms of the plague included a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin (Ring around the rosy).
Pockets and pouches were filled with sweet smelling herbs ( or posies) which were carried due to the belief that the disease was transmitted by bad smells. The term “Ashes Ashes” refers to the cremation of the dead bodies! The death rate was over 60% and the plague was only halted by the Great Fire of London in 1666 which killed the rats which carried the disease which was transmitting via water sources. The English version of
“Ring around the rosy” replaces Ashes with (Atishoo, Atishoo) as violent sneezing was another symptom of the disease.
**Little Boy Blue come blow your horn,
The sheep’s in the meadow the cow’s in the corn.
But where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
He’s under a haystack fast asleep.
Will you wake him? No, not I - for if I do, he’s sure to cry
**
History:
Origins of the Little Boy Blue story
Unlike other Rhymes the words and story of Little Boy Blue cannot be positively connected to any historical figure in history. There is, however, a theory that ‘Little Boy Blue’ refers to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dating back to English Tudor history and the reign og King Henry VIII (although the words and lyrics cannot be connected to any actual events in his life).
The robes of the fat Cardinal Wolsey were red - the opposite being Little Boy Blue - which could have been a nickname. The words of Little Boy Blue could have helped in assisting a secret message of dissent concerning the incompetence of the statesman to be conveyed by this rhyme. Open criticism of the cardinal could lead to imprisonment, confiscation of property or even death - the obscure Little Boy Blue suddenly becomes quite understandable!
**Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said “What a good boy am I!”
**
History:
16th Century history origin to the Little Jack Horner story
Little Jack Horner was reputed to have been the Steward to the Bishop of Glastonbury. The steward, or Little Jack Horner, was sent to King Henry VIII with a Christmas gift of twelve title deeds to various English manorial estates. Jack ( Little Jack Horner( stole the deed to the manor of Mells (it being the real ‘plum’ of the twelve manors).
The remaining eleven manors were given to the crown but the manor of Mells became the property of the Horner family! The manor of Mells was situated in France and this is where Little Jack Horner moved to! The first publication date for the lyrics to the Little Jack Horner rhyme is 1725.
**Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe in the middle of the night
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Every fiddler had a fine fiddle, and a very fine fiddle had he;
Oh there’s none so rare as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.
**
History:
The Nursery rhyme lyrics of Old King Cole are based in history dating back to 3rd century. Old King Cole ruled part of Britain in the third century. He is reputed to have built the important English city of Colchester. In Colchester there is the site of an old Roman gravel pit which is still known today as ‘Old King Cole’s Kitchen.’
Cole or “Godebog” was an old Dark Age British King, and, a descendant of Britain’s pre-Saxon & pre-Roman royal houses. The Tudor dynasty, started with Henry VII, and claimed to descend from Old King Cole’s royal lineage in attempt to further legitimise the royal house of Tudor claim to the English throne.
