Origins of Nursery Rhymes

Aren't nursery rhymes fun to read to your children? Would they still be fun if you knew their secret origins?

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in row.

Very nice, right? Well, did you know that Mary was actually Bloody Mary? Mary Tudor who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. She was a devout Catholic and the garden is actually a graveyard that gets bigger as she puts Protestant believers to death. The silver bells and cockleshells referred to torture devices. The silver bells were thumb screws and cockleshells were instruments that were used on the groin for torture. The pretty maids? A guillotine. When the head is chopped off, do you know why the executioner holds it up to the crowd? It is so the head can see the crowd and its former body. That's right. After the head is chopped off,it is still alive for at least eight seconds and can still see for that time.

Ring around the rosy
Pocketful of Posies
Ashes, Ashes, We all fall down

Most of you probably know that is has to do with the Bubonic, or Black Plague, as it was known in the 16th Century. If you were infected with the plague, it started out as a rosy red rash that had a ring around it and it was thought to be brought on by inhaling bad smells so the posies were put in the pockets because they were aromatic. Ashes refers to all of the dead bodies that were cremated.

Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down
and broke his crown
And Jill came
tumbling after.

This lovely nursery rhyme refers to the beheadings of King Louis XVI of France and his wife Marie Antoinette in 1793. A time period known as the Reign of Terror.

These are just a few of the nursery rhymes that have secret origins. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall was about a cannon that sat on the wall of a fortress. When the wall was taken out, the cannon had fallen and when the soldiers tried to pick it up, they were all slaughtered. It is interesting to see all of the hidden political messages in our favorite nursery rhymes. I'll be back with more in a few weeks. Enjoy.