Morbid

Ever notice how morbid and dark the nursery rhymes that were taught in English schools were ? Who on all that is good, thought it was a great idea to tell children that a baby will come tumbling down, or to remember me till I am dead, lets also scare them with the help of a black bird that will peck at your nose or a spider that will chase you away and eat your curds and whey and if nothing else lets put a cat in a well while we are at it and a little racism in the form of black sheep. I guess the worst of the lot is the one with silver bells and cockle shells - I had no clue till I started to dig into the reasons behind the rhymes and the history associated with them.

These are after all English nursery rhymes and it goes without a doubt that the history behind them would involve the history of the English isles. To be precise - The Plague, Taxes in Medieval England, Religious Persecution, Prostitution etc. Not exactly the topics one would associate with children. Here is what I learned 

Baa Baa Black Sheep - Either about the Slave trade or some say it is about Taxes imposed by Edward 1 

Ring a Ring of Roses - The Plague, Clearly pointing to death and the fact that one could identify if one had the disease by a red ring that would appear on your body somewhere.

Rock-a-bye baby - to do with the house of Stuart and the need for a catholic heir. 

Goosey Goosey - Religious Persecution.

Mulberry Bush - Female inmates in a prison yard.

Oranges and Lemons - Condemned person on the way to get hanged. 

Mary Mary - the silver bells are torture devices along with the shells that represented torture devices used on male genitalia. 

Three blind mice - about blind people. 

Song of Sixpence - Pirates and a bit more. 

George Porgie - Sex Scandal 

Peter Peter - Masochistic behaviour.

The list goes on and on, a simple internet search will provide you with the history behind the most popular nursery rhymes. 

I also learnt that it probably was the easiest way to communicate with a largely illiterate populace when these rhymes were first written. The easy sign song melodies allowed people to remember and pass information. The strength of the oral tradition basically meant that these rhymes are still around and children will sing them oblivious to the morbid meaning or the history behind them. 

The morbid history and meaning aside my favourite as a kid was Sing a song of Sixpence;  now it is Row Row. May be will write about the meaning of that at some time. 

C