As children, most of you may remember singing a tune in
the schoolyard with your friends like Ring around the Rosie’s,
Mistress Mary, and others. Did you know
that some nursery rhymes have a dark history to them; we sang them as kids
because they were catchy tunes and they were fun to sing, but the realities of
these songs can be scary.
Ring around the Rosie was first printed in
1881 in a Mother Goose book by Kate Greenway.
Each line of the song has a specific meaning:
Ring
around roses refers to the red marks which are the
first signs of plague. A
pocket full of posies refers to sachets of herbs carried to ward off
infection, usually stuffed inside a
mask ,or it was dipped into the
herbs and worn about the face with a handkerchief. “Ashes! Ashes!” Refers to either a cremation of the plague victims,
or the words spoken at a mass. “Ashes to
Ashes, Dust to Dust. We
all fall down! Refers to the fact that the plague was not selective,
the victims were rich/poor, young and old.
Mistress Mary was first published in “Tommy
Thumbs Pretty Song Book” in 1744. This nursery rhyme has a very dark past. “Contrary” is one way to describe a murderous
psychopath. This popular English nursery rhyme, which reads like a solicitation
for gardening advice, is actually a recounting of the homicidal nature of Queen
Mary I of England, a.k.a. Bloody Mary. The nursery rhyme broken down line by line is as
follows: “Mistress Mary, quite contrary” relates to the contrary aspect of
her chosen religion of Catholicism. “How
does your Garden Grow?” Her garden was a cemetery like mass of land, with
rows of graves occupied by murdered, protestant martyrs. “With “Silver Bells” and “Cockle Shells”, which refer to instruments
of torture. A “Silver
Bell” refers to a thumbscrew like torture device that would crush the
thumbs. “Cockle
Shells” refers to a clam-shell shaped device that acted like a vice
grip. These were attached to private
parts and gradually tightened and squeezed to induce a confession, that they
were Protestants. The last line; “And
Maids in a row” refers to the guillotine.
Its nickname was “The
Maiden”. She did not use one or two
but rows of guillotines to execute the Protestant Martyrs.
Can you imagine as a child discovering the songs you were singing really meant a terrible and painful death. I could not, and am glad I did not really sing these songs to my kids. I usually had them listen to, and I quizzed them on 60's, 70's and 80's rock music. They would do really well in a rock music game of jeopardy.
Can you imagine as a child discovering the songs you were singing really meant a terrible and painful death. I could not, and am glad I did not really sing these songs to my kids. I usually had them listen to, and I quizzed them on 60's, 70's and 80's rock music. They would do really well in a rock music game of jeopardy.
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