The other two figures in the rhyme, the master and the dame, are-the master is the king or the king's representatives the local nobility would collect revenue on behalf of the king-and the dame is the church.
And "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" was a lament from the farmers of England who in the rhyme are represented by the little boy. The lord chancellor still sits on a wool sack in the House of Commons to remind everyone about that. And the wealth of England was very much based on wool. ROBERTS: This is quite an old rhyme, actually this goes back to the 12th century at least. I guess I can see that this would have something to do with paying taxes, but not really. One for the master and one for the dame and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.' So, yeah.ĮLLIOTT: So from sex and religion to taxes why don't we go?ĮLLIOTT: We talked a little bit at the beginning of our conversation about "Baa, Baa Black Sheep." I'm going to recite this one: `Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes, sir. And so there you have the rhyme linking the Catholic Church to immoral acts. The rhyme associates the Catholic Church with prostitution, and this is reinforced slightly more in the second verse, where you have `There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers, took him by the left leg, threw him down the stairs.' The not saying the prayers bit is relating to the new English Prayer Book-that was a Protestant Prayer Book-and the left leg is-I don't know if this works in America, actually, but in England, left leg or left-footer is a term for Catholic. One was he took the land the other was a propaganda offensive, and this rhyme becomes part of that. One is that it ties into Henry VIII and his taking land from the Catholic Church. There's a number of theories about this rhyme. The phrase `to be bitten by a goose' meant to contact a venereal disease from the working girls.Īnd this rhyme's quite interesting. Now in the 16th, 17th and possibly into the 18th century in England, the word `goose' meant prostitute. There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers, so I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.' Where do I begin with this? A key-this is a very good example of a word that has changed its meaning over the centuries. ROBERTS: `Goosey Goosey Gander, where shall I wander? Upstairs and downstairs and in my lady's chamber. So there would be no reason in the past not to have what would now be considered adult themes in rhymes that children could hear and sing.ĮLLIOTT: Well, let's get to a little sex and debauchery from your book, "Goosey Goosey Gander." Why don't you recite that for us first? Childhood is a relatively recent phenomena, certainly over the last couple of hundred years, that children are seen as very separate from adults.
It's to do with changing assumptions of what we think of as childhood. It's to do with words in English changing the meaning over time. Some are more blatantly cruel, and others are more coded in their meanings. Who put her in? Little Johnny Flynn.' It's quite clearly the tale of a little boy putting a cat in a well.
NORTHERN TALE 4 WALKTHROUGH YOUTUBE FULL
Here it is.: `It should come as no surprise that nursery rhymes are full of sex, death and cruelty.' Now, really, that does come as somewhat of a surprise to me. CHRIS ROBERTS (Author, "The Reason Behind the Rhyme"): Thank you.ĮLLIOTT: I want to read the first line from the introduction in your book.
It's called "Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind the Rhyme." He joins me now from our London bureau. Now he's compiled those tales into a book. London librarian Chris Roberts was moonlighting as a walking tour guide when he discovered that nursery rhymes had juicy histories. Who knew? And "Sing a Song of Sixpence"? It's about King Henry VIII and his break from the Catholic Church. If you have questions about this game, please contact us using this form."Baa, Baa Black Sheep" is actually a protest against taxation.
NORTHERN TALE 4 WALKTHROUGH YOUTUBE FULL VERSION
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