Twisted Tales: The Dark Histories Hidden in Your Favorite Nursery Rhymes!

What is “Pease Porridge Hot” likely about?

Medieval cooking

Victorian eating habits

A children’s game

A mythical tale

Pease Porridge Hot reflects medieval cooking practices, describing the preparation and aging of a common dish made from peas.

Which rhyme is speculated to be about the Black Death?

London Bridge is Falling Down

Oranges and Lemons

Ring Around the Rosie

This Old Man

As previously mentioned, “Ring Around the Rosie” is commonly thought to describe the Black Death with its cryptic references to symptoms and death, though this interpretation is historically contentious.

What does “Hickory Dickory Dock” potentially illustrate?

An astronomical clock

Industrial timekeeping

A simple child’s tale

Victorian mechanics

Hickory Dickory Dock may symbolize the advent of industrial timekeeping, with the mouse running up and down like the hands of a clock.

Jack and Jill potentially symbolizes what?

French royalty losing their heads

A real couple who fetched water

Two stars in a constellation

A child’s first steps

One interpretation of “Jack and Jill” relates to King Louis XVI of France (Jack), who lost his crown and then his head, followed by his queen (Jill).

What might “Wee Willie Winkie” be about?

Nighttime patrols

A fictional child

Scottish folklore

Colonial American tales

Wee Willie Winkie is thought to describe the nighttime patrols during curfew times, using the character of Willie as a personification of the town watchman.

What could “Little Jack Horner” be referencing?

A real estate scandal

A political maneuver

A nursery game

An old English poem

Little Jack Horner is thought to describe a political maneuver, where Jack pulls out a plum (a valuable property deed) from a pie, symbolizing profit from corruption.

What is “London Bridge is Falling Down” possibly about?

Viking attack

Natural erosion

Repeated rebuilding

An earthquake

One theory suggests that “London Bridge is Falling Down” could be referencing the destruction and subsequent rebuilds of London Bridge over centuries, including Norse leader Olaf II’s attack.

What does “Pop Goes the Weasel” likely refer to?

A tailor’s tool

A spinning wheel mechanism

Pawning one’s suit

Catching a mischievous animal

The ‘weasel’ in “Pop Goes the Weasel” may refer to the act of pawning, specifically a suit or coat, which rhymes slangily with ‘weasel.

Goosey Goosey Gander” might be an allusion to what?

Geese herding

Tudor religious persecution

A nursery game

A famous storybook

Goosey Goosey Gander may covertly discuss the persecution of priests during the Tudor period, with references to priests hiding in ‘priest holes’ to avoid detection by Protestant reformers.

What is believed to be the origin of “Ring Around the Rosie”?

Dance during the Plague

A children’s game

Victorian courtship ritual

Medieval harvest dance

Ring Around the Rosie is often associated with the Great Plague of London. The symptoms described in the rhyme (‘a pocket full of posies’ to ward off the smell of illness, and ‘we all fall down’ representing death) suggest this connection, though it is debated among historians.

What might “Simple Simon” criticize?

Victorian education

Economic policies

Feudal society

Medieval market scenes

Simple Simon possibly critiques the simplicity and naivety found in medieval market scenes, showing Simon’s foolishness in various trading attempts.

What does “Old Mother Hubbard” allegedly depict?

Economic hardships

A nursery tale

Victorian politics

Elizabethan fashion

Old Mother Hubbard is thought to critique economic hardships, portraying the cupboard (state of the household) as bare, reflecting societal conditions.

What does “Hey Diddle Diddle” potentially symbolize?

Elizabethan musicians

Nonsensical child’s play

Astronomical phenomena

Political satire

Some interpretations suggest “Hey Diddle Diddle” references astronomical terms, with the cow jumping over the moon representing phases of the moon or eclipses.

Which nursery rhyme is thought to be about taxation?

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Humpty Dumpty

Jack and Jill

Old King Cole

Baa Baa Black Sheep is believed to be a complaint against the medieval English wool tax, where the ‘master’ and the ‘dame’ represent the king and church taking their shares.

What historical event does “Humpty Dumpty” refer to?

A king’s fall from power

A large cannon’s fall during a siege

A clumsy chef in King Henry’s court

A bridge collapse

Humpty Dumpty originally referred to a large cannon used during the English Civil War which fell off a wall and could not be reassembled.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary may be about which Mary?

Mary I of England

Mary Queen of Scots

The Virgin Mary

Mary Magdalene

This rhyme is often thought to reflect Mary I of England (‘Bloody Mary’), symbolizing her brutal reign and the failed attempts to re-establish Catholicism in England.

What could “Rub-a-dub-dub” symbolize?

A child’s bathing song

A tale of three craftsmen

Naval adventures

Theatrical mockery

Rub-a-dub-dub likely started as a ribald rhyme mocking the spectacle of public events and shows, with its characters representing various societal roles.

What historical period is “This Little Piggy” from?

The Great Depression

The Industrial Revolution

Victorian Era

Medieval times

This Little Piggy is often attributed to the Victorian era, reflecting the consumer culture emerging at the time with each piggy’s different fate.

Where might “Itsy Bitsy Spider” have originated?

Medieval Europe

Victorian England

Early American colonies

Scandinavian folklore

The “Itsy Bitsy Spider” is likely rooted in early American folklore, symbolizing perseverance and resilience through the imagery of the spider continually climbing.