When I first had my daughter, I started to rack my brain for all the old nursery rhymes that I knew from my childhood. The ones that had been sung to me as a child. Some came back, others popped up in books we read.
Passing on the tradition of these rhymes felt right and like coming full circle, but then I started paying attention the words in these songs. Some of them were pretty dark.
I originally wanted to find out why some nursery rhymes like Ring Around the Rosie and Jack and Jill are so dark. But to be honest, there are so many different theories out there. We don’t even know who really wrote them.
So instead I’m left to ponder each nursery rhyme and and come up with my own meaning. I decided to share with you three nursery rhymes that I was able to find a lot of interesting information about. But first, a little on the mysterious Mother Goose.
Mother Goose
The first collection of Mother Goose nursey rhymes was published in French in 1697 by Charles Perrault and then translated into English in 1729 by Robert Samber.
No one really knows who Mother Goose was. Some say she’s Isaac Goose’s wife - named either Mary Goose or Elizabeth Foster Goose depending on the source - who lived in Boston, Massachusetts. But that couldn’t be right because the rhymes themselves weren’t originally written in English.
In French texts dated as early as 1626, the words “mère l’oye” or “mère oye” (meaning Mother Goose) can be referenced. Still, there is no clear reference as to who Mother Goose was.
There are more theories out there, like the French legend that the wife of King Robert II loved to tell stories to children. But at this point she could be anyone. A mother, a queen, or simply a lover of stories. Whoever she was, she left a huge legacy that I’m grateful for to this day.
Humpty Dumpty
I found out a lot of cool things about Humpty Dumpty. We all know the story. It’s a rhyme about an egg named Humpty Dumpty who falls off of a wall. No one - not even the king’s horses and men - could put him back together.
But according to American Songwriter, the rhyme could be a metaphor for many things. It could literally be about an egg. Or an answer to the question “what sits on a wall and breaks when it falls?” It could also have just been a riddle said in bars.
Perhaps Humpty Dumpty was a metaphor for things breaking. Or it could have been inspired by the cannon named Humtpy Dumpty that sat on top of Saint Mary at the Walls church during the English Civil War. There’s even evidence that King Richard III, who had a humpback, could have inspired Humpty Dumpty when he was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
Humpty Dumpty is super catchy. But maybe there’s a lesson hidden in the rhyme. Sometimes things break and are never the same again. That’s a lesson we all have to learn in life. This seems like a harmless way to start to learn it.
Jack and Jill
Let’s look at Jack and Jill next. Jack and Jill go to get some water and both end up falling down.
Jack and Jill are well known generic names for a boy and girl. They’re also used in terms like jack-and-jill bathroom or Jack of all trades.
However, the rhyme could have a more sinister origin. It could be that Jack represents the French King Louis XVI and Jill represents Marie Antoinette. The “hill” could be the guillotine and the broken crown is when King Louis XVI was beheaded. Wow.
American Songwriter goes even darker when they say that the rhyme is literally about death. “In other words: what goes up must come down. As you’re achieving your life’s goal—getting fresh water—just know that the mountain you climbed has a downside. Youth has old age. Life has death. Up has down. Be prepared to lose your crown.”
Though many verses were added to the rhyme over the years, it’s still just the first verse that many of us sing today. And if American Songwriter is to be believed, there is a lesson to be learned in hearing this song as well. Death is a part of life. Everything that begins will eventually end.
Ring Around the Rosie
The only nursery rhyme that I thought I knew the origin to was Ring Around the Rosie. People often associate Ring Around the Rosie with the Great Plague in 1665. But when I dug into the research I found that this is probably not the case.
The “ring around the rosie” is supposedly representative of the red rash developed by the plague. “Pocket full of posies” were the posies carried to prevent the disease. Before “ashes, ashes,” the rhyme went “a-tishoo, a-tishoo” which was thought to be sneezes. Ashes later referred to cremation. Then “we all fall down” was literally death.
But there are many versions of Ring Around the Rosie in many languages. Not all of them even say “we all fall down” in the end. For example, in America in the 1880s, the song was used in a school game where the children curtsied at the end of the rhyme and the last child to curtsey would lose the game.
What Does It All Mean?
As I read through all the research and contemplated what it could mean, I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what Mother Goose meant for all along. The snappy, short rhymes give so much food for thought. Some have life lessons, some are fun games. Maybe we aren’t meant to know much about them. Maybe, like so much art, we are meant to take what we need and leave the rest.
These are rhymes we sing to children, after all. But if we can impart some wisdom through a catchy tune along the way, I’m here for it.
Thank you for being here! The Motherhood Reckoning only exists with readers like you! If you would like to support my writing and buy me the cup of coffee needed to create these newsletters, consider becoming a paid subscriber. It would mean the world to me.