Category: Nursery Rhymes

Any Requests for Blog ideas?

Any Requests for Blog ideas?

Comments 0 Comment

What Do YOU think? Hello readers, and thank you for being here. I have decided to turn today’s blog into what hopefully could be a communication exercise. Each day I write your blog, with no real idea about which you like, or even hate! Do you enjoy my blogs in general, and find them interesting, or would you prefer different topics? If possible, let me know which you enjoy, which not so much. Do you enjoy the factual ones, humour, astrology, origins of days we celebrate often without knowing why? Useful sites and tips for writers? Or even if there…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Comments 0 Comment

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,Jack jump over the candle-stick. The rhyme is first recorded in a manuscript of around 1815 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century. Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. It’s has been said, that the kids poem was created to explain the practice of candle jumping, which was famous way back in the 1600’s. Generally practiced at festivals in England, young girls would leap over a lit candle, trying not to extinguish its flame. Good luck was said to be signalled by clearing a candle without…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Comments 0 Comment

Of all the dark meaning of children’s nursery rhymes, one of the worst must be  ‘ Mary Mary quite contrary.’ This rhyme is usually said to be about Bloody Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and concerns the torture and murder of Protestants. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and her “garden” here is an allusion to the graveyards which were filling with Protestant martyrs.The ‘silver bells’ were a type of thumbscrew and the ‘cockle shells’ were also instruments of torture, used on Protestant martyrs to ‘persuade’ them to change faith. The ‘maiden’ was an instrument used to behead people…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Little Miss MuffetSat on a tuffet,Eating her curds and whey;Along came a spider,Who sat down beside herAnd frightened Miss Muffet away A recorded version of the “Little Miss Muffet” nursery rhyme dates back to the early 19th century England. It was first printed in the “Songs for the Nursery” collection published in 1805. The origin of “Little Miss Muffet” is most commonly attributed to Dr Thomas Muffet, a notorious physician and entomologist from the 16th century, and author of a scientific illustrated guide about insects. “Little Miss Muffet” is about a girl named Patience, who was Dr Muffet’s stepdaughter. The…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

“Goosey, Goosey Gander” is a traditional English nursery rhyme from the late 18th century. The more I read of nursery rhymes, the more cruel they seem to become! Although there is no exact evidence of this, it is believed that the origins of Goosey, Goosey Gander date back earlier to the 16th century, during King Henry VII’s reign, and it was used as propaganda of the Protestants against the Catholic Church. The title and first line of the song might also refer to the march of Cromwell’s soldiers in “goose-step”, in the mid 17th century, after the Civil War. The…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.So she gave them some broth without any bread,And she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed. This rather cruel nursery rhyme, which dates back to eighteenth-century England, has a few suggested meanings. The most often quoted  refers allegedly to the English Parliament—who is the old woman. The shoe is England itself. If you look at the map of the island of Great Britain and turn it 90 degrees clockwise, you can see very clearly that the island resembles…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with. 

Little Jack HornerSat 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!” The story behind this rhyme is said to be that the “Jack” mentioned was actually Thomas Horner, a steward to Richard Whiting, the abbot of Glastonbury. The abbot sent Horner to London with a Christmas pie for King Henry VIII. The deeds to twelve manor houses were hidden in the pie.  The abbot did this in an attempt to ingratiate himself with the king during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. On his trip to London, Horner…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with.

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with.

Jack and Jill went up the hill  To fetch a pail of water;Jack fell down and broke his crownAnd Jill came tumbling after. The small village of Kilmersdon in north Somerset, England, claims to be the origin of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. Local legend recalls how in the late 15th century, a young unmarried couple regularly climbed a nearby hill in order to conduct their secret dating  away from the prying eyes of the village. Jill became pregnant, but just before the baby was born Jack was killed by a rock that had fallen from their ‘special’ hill….

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with.

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with.

This not so innocent rhyme is said to be a rather sinister play on words based on the dreadful pain and suffering caused to so many people during the Great Plague. The ring of roses was the red rash that was often one of the first signs of this terrible disease.             A posy of herbs was thought to bring protection against the disease because one belief was that warding off bad smells in the towns would defend against it.             Once the sneezing and coughing began they formed the final fatal symptoms.because it was believed the ill person would…

Read More Read More

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with.

Truth behind the Nursery Rhymes we grew up with.

Baa Baa Black Sheep,Have you any wool?Yes, sir, yes, sir,Three bags full;One for the master,One for the dame,And one for the little boyWho lives down the lane. As you might have guessed, this rhyme is all about the sheep trade. Until the late 16th century the final lines of the rhyme read “And none for the little boy who cries down the lane.” It was changed to the current version in order to cheer it up and make it into a rhyme more suitable for children to sing There was a great demand for wool in medieval England, and after…

Read More Read More

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)

%d bloggers like this: