Posted on 03/01/2004 4:41:38 PM PST by Pokey78
It is enough to make most parents blush with embarrassment.
Britain's most popular nursery rhymes, recited by generations of parents to their children, are teeming with references to bed-hopping royals and teenage sex, according to a book on the origins of 24 playground ditties.
While Jack and Jill may seem innocuous enough in their attempt to fetch water, they are in fact preoccupied with losing their virginity, says Chris Roberts, a social historian who has traced the adult stories behind the nursery rhymes. Jill possibly becomes pregnant and there are regrets later.
"The interesting bit is that, having successfully 'lost his crown', it's Jack who runs off rapidly - probably to tell his mates what happened," said Mr Roberts, 37, author of Heavy Words Lightly Thrown.
In an alternative second verse, the sexual association of the rhyme becomes more blatant. Instead of his head, Jack has a different part of his anatomy patched up with vinegar and brown paper.
The rhyme "Goosey, goosey gander, where do you wander? Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber" can be read as alluding to the spread of venereal disease - known as "goose bumps" because of the swelling.
It also tackles a row between Henry VIII and the Catholic Church, which owned the land upon which brothels were operating and profited hugely.
Mr Roberts, a librarian at East London University, said his book came out of research he undertook for a series of walking tours around London.
While people already know that Ring a Ring o' Roses refers to the rash displayed by sufferers at the time of the Great Plague, it is less well known that Oranges and Lemons, a guide to the City of London, doubles as a lewd wedding song, he said.
The line "here comes a candle to light you to bed", for example, is an apparent reference to the bride tempting her new bridegroom, while "here comes a chopper to chop off your head" alludes to the woman losing her virginity, or "maiden head".
"Some nursery rhymes were clearly adult rhymes that were sung to children because they were the only rhymes an adult knew," said Mr Roberts. "Others were deliberately created as a simple way to tell children a story or give them information. Religion, sex, money and social issues are all common themes."
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary contains a reference to "cockles" - cuckolds - in the promiscuous court of Mary, Queen of Scots. The Grand Old Duke of York is about a former Duke's inept military strategy against the French.
Although some rhymes appear to have their origins in the Middle Ages, their golden age was the period between the Tudor monarchs and the Stuarts. Increased freedom of speech, literacy and communication eventually did away with the need for allegorical rhymes.
Then came the Victorians, who viewed childhood as an innocent state. "During the 19th century the rhymes were increasingly written up, illustrated and sold as collections for children. They became more accessible, but less potent," said Mr Roberts.
Many of today's children's songs are deliberately composed as such, making the roots of the next generation's nursery rhymes more anodyne. However, the need for "tribal chanting" is still present and most obvious in football songs, which Mr Roberts claims could be tomorrow's lullabies.
"They are about the only thing that are 'composed' anonymously and known and sung by thousands of people. I know fathers who croon football songs to help their children sleep."
Foot & Mouth Publications, the book's publisher, said it "should not be bought for children unless their parents want them to ask tricky questions about such things as pre-marital sex".
Check out #3. Sewer level mind seems to fit the bill rather nicely.
My thinking too -- but one suspects it is coupled with a desperate need for fame.
Mind you, while I was in Dublin some of the Trinity professors published an argument that she was a prostitute and that ‘cockles and mussels’ was a pretence. Both code and also gave her an excuse as to why she called to various houses through the day if the guards picked her up. Mind you, that caused a lot of debate and theirs was much better backed up than this because they could show other examples of nicknames in literature from the time using shellfish, etc as nicknames for sex workers and services.
I think someone has let their imaginantion run wild... Jack and Jill???? The crown is the top of the head... not down there!
Damn straight. The author is drawing a pretty long bow here!
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
I used to think that until Bill and Monica…now it’s much harder to enjoy a good Cuban!
I'm not so sure. You can find numerous ribald references and graffiti that was left by various cultures over time. I've seen examples of this in Roman ruins and in Viking. I've seen some good examples of ribald rhymes from the Victorian Era. It wouldn't surprise me if many rhymes that we think of as nursery rhymes had carnal connotations or double meanings.
Or incredibly powerful drugs. These clowns are pulling our collective leg, aren't they?
I was taught that Jack fell down and “broke his crown” and Jill came tumbling after.
My parents must have changed the words to protect me at that young age.
"Jack and Jill went up the hill, each with a buck and a quarter, Jill came down with $2.50"
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