"Sing a Song of Sixpence" is an English nursery rhyme, perhaps originating in the 18th century. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 13191. The sixpence in the rhyme is a British coin that was first minted in 1551.
"Sing a Song of Sixpence"
Walter Crane's 1864 illustration of the maid hanging out the clothes
The rhyme's origins are uncertain. References have been inferred in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (c. 1602), (Twelfth Night 2.3/32–33), where Sir Toby Belch tells a clown: "Come on; there is sixpence for you: let's have a song" and in Beaumont and Fletcher's 1614 play Bonduca, which contains the line "Whoa, here's a stir now! Sing a song o' sixpence!"[1][2]
In the past it has often been attributed to George Steevens (1736–1800), who used it in a pun at the expense of Poet LaureateHenry James Pye (1745–1813) in 1790, but the first verse had already appeared in print in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London around 1744, in the form:
Sing a Song of Sixpence, A bag full of Rye, Four and twenty Naughty Boys, Baked in a Pye.[1]
The next printed version that survives, from around 1780, has two verses and the boys have been replaced by birds.[1] A version of the modern four verses is first extant in Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus published in 1784, which ends with a magpie attacking the unfortunate maid.[1] Fifth verses with the happier endings began to be added from the middle of the 19th century.[1]
LyricsEdit
Cover illustration for Randolph Caldecott's Sing a Song for Sixpence (1880)
When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing. Wasn't that a dainty (or dandy) dish To set before the king?
The king was in his counting house, Counting out his money. The queen was in the parlour, Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes, When down came a blackbird And pecked off her nose.[1]
The final line of the fourth verse is sometimes slightly varied, with nose pecked or nipped off. One of the following additional verses is often added to moderate the ending:
They sent for the king's doctor, Who sewed it on again. He sewed it on so neatly, The seam was never seen.[1]
or:
There was such a commotion, That little Jenny wren Flew down into the garden, And put it back again.[1]
This may be the most well-known version in Britain and the Commonwealth.[3]
Version 2Edit
This version may be well known in the United States.[4]
Meaning and interpretationsEdit
Many interpretations have been placed on this rhyme. It is known that a 16th-century amusement was to place live birds in a pie, as a form of entremet. An Italian cookbook from 1549 (translated into English in 1598) contained such a recipe:[5] "to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and fly out when it is cut up" and this was referred to in a cook book of 1725 by John Nott.[1][6] The wedding of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV of France in 1600 contains some interesting parallels. "The first surprise, though, came shortly before the starter—when the guests sat down, unfolded their napkins and saw songbirds fly out. The highlight of the meal was sherbets of milk and honey, which were created by Buontalenti."[7]
In their 1951 The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie write that the rhyme has been tied to a variety of historical events or folklorish symbols such as the queen symbolizing the moon, the king the sun, and the blackbirds the number of hours in a day; or, as the authors indicate, the blackbirds have been seen as an allusion to monks during the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, with Catherine of Aragon representing the queen, and Anne Boleyn the maid. The rye and the birds have been seen to represent a tribute sent to Henry VII, and on another level, the term "pocketful of rye" may in fact refer to an older term of measurement. The number 24 has been tied to the Reformation and the printing of the English Bible with 24 letters. From a folklorish tradition, the blackbird taking the maid's nose has been seen as a demon stealing her soul.[8]
No corroborative evidence has been found to support these theories and given that the earliest version has only one stanza and mentions "naughty boys" and not blackbirds, they can only be applicable if it is assumed that more recently printed versions accurately preserve an older tradition.[1]
Although there is no interpretation that is proven as true, there is however one that is explicitly proven false. That one is the story that Blackbeard the pirate created "Sing a Song of Sixpence" with its lyrics as a code to recruit crew for his pirate ship.[9][10] That tale is actually false and Blackbeard had nothing to do with the song. This story was created in 1999 by the website Snopes (which normally proves or debunks urban legends) part of a series of fabricated urban legends known as "The Repository of Lost Legends" (whose initials read "TROLL") as red herrings to test people's common sense with an outlandish story.[10] All the Lost Legends are fictional and the Lost Legend about "Sing a Song of Sixpence" is no exception.[10]
In this deliberate misinterpretation of "Sing a Song of Sixpence" and its lyrics, the "Sixpence" referred to a Sixpence coin (a decent amount of money in Blackbeard's time) and the "pocketful of rye" was a bag ("pocket") with whiskey ("rye", one of the ingredients of whiskey) to drink, that captain Blackbeard gave to each pirate in his crew as a salary everyday.[11] The "blackbirds" were pirates that work for Blackbeard and them "Baked in a pie" is the pirates setting up a ruse to raid a nearby ship to capture it.[9] The pie opening and the birds singing refers to the end of the ruse and start of the raid on the nearby ship.[9] The "dainty dish" was the ship that easily captured by the pirates after the raid and the "king" in both instances of the word in the song refer to Blackbeard himself.[9] The lyrics "The king was in his counting house, Counting out his money" was about how Blackbeard was wealthy enough to pay his crew their daily Sixpence and whiskey salary regardless if they captured ships that day or not.[9] The Snopes page claims that this was especially attractive to pirates because as most pirate captains didn't pay salaries and pirate raids were often unsuccessful, it was a common occurrence that pirate ships were forced to return to shore after several months due to lack of funds.[9] The "Queen" mentioned was in fact Blackbeard's ship, called Queen Anne's Revenge and the mention of the queen "Eating bread and honey" is Queen Anne's Revenge taking in supplies at port to prepare for a cruse. The "maid" is a prize ship (a ship specifically chosen to get raided), the "garden" is the Caribbean Sea (where Blackbeard and his crew carried out their raids) and the "clothes" are the prize ship sails. The mention of another "blackbird" pulling off the maid's nose from her face is Blackbeard bragging about his plans to raid the prize ship. The version of "Sing a Song of Sixpence" on Snopes does not have any verse where the maid's nose is reattached to her face.[9] Every Lost Legend had a link to a page explaining it was fictional and the reason for posting it.[9][10]
In 2003, the TV series Mostly True Stories?: Urban Legends Revealed used this story as a true or false question before a commercial break when it asked "Was the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' used as a code to recruit pirates?".[12] After the break, the show mistakenly claimed it was "true" and mentioned its supposed connection to Blackbeard implying that Snopes was used by the show's producers as a source.[12] Snopes then posted a page about the mistake on their "Media goofs" section noting that whoever made the show apparently did not see the explanation and had fallen for a story that was fictional.[12] In later airings of the episode, the answer was corrected to say that the Blackbeard connection was "false" with Snopes' page on Mostly True Stories? was edited to note the correction.[12] According to Snopes, no public statement was made about the mistake by the show's producers.[12]
^ abcdefghijIona and Peter Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), pp. 394–395.
^Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John (31 May 1812). "The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher: Bonduca. The island princess. The loyal subject. Monsieur Thomas". J. Ballantyne. Retrieved 31 May 2023 – via Google Books.
^Giovanni de Roselli's Epulario, quale tratta del modo de cucinare ogni carne, ucelli, pesci... (1549), of which an English translation, Epulario, or the Italian Banquet, was published in 1598 (Mary Augusta Scott, Elizabethan Translations from the Italian no. 256, pp. 333f.).
^Jenkins, Jessica Kerwin, The Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2010, pp. 200–201
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Sing a Song of Sixpence
Media related to Sing a Song of Sixpence at Wikimedia Commons
Mikkelson, David (28 April 2003). "Mostly True Stories Sixpence Error: Urban legends TV show falls for joke about Blackbeard's using a nursery rhyme to recruit fellow pirates?". Snopes.com.
"What's the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' all about?". StraightDope.com. 4 April 2001.
October 06, 2023
sing, song, sixpence, english, nursery, rhyme, perhaps, originating, 18th, century, listed, roud, folk, song, index, number, 13191, sixpence, rhyme, british, coin, that, first, minted, 1551, walter, crane, 1864, illustration, maid, hanging, clothesnursery, rhy. Sing a Song of Sixpence is an English nursery rhyme perhaps originating in the 18th century It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as number 13191 The sixpence in the rhyme is a British coin that was first minted in 1551 Sing a Song of Sixpence Walter Crane s 1864 illustration of the maid hanging out the clothesNursery rhymePublishedc 1744Songwriter s Traditional Contents 1 Origins 2 Lyrics 3 Melody 3 1 Version 1 3 2 Version 2 4 Meaning and interpretations 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksOrigins Edit nbsp The Queen Was in the Parlour Eating Bread and Honey by Valentine Cameron Prinsep The rhyme s origins are uncertain References have been inferred in Shakespeare s Twelfth Night c 1602 Twelfth Night 2 3 32 33 where Sir Toby Belch tells a clown Come on there is sixpence for you let s have a song and in Beaumont and Fletcher s 1614 play Bonduca which contains the line Whoa here s a stir now Sing a song o sixpence 1 2 In the past it has often been attributed to George Steevens 1736 1800 who used it in a pun at the expense of Poet Laureate Henry James Pye 1745 1813 in 1790 but the first verse had already appeared in print in Tommy Thumb s Pretty Song Book published in London around 1744 in the form Sing a Song of Sixpence A bag full of Rye Four and twenty Naughty Boys Baked in a Pye 1 The next printed version that survives from around 1780 has two verses and the boys have been replaced by birds 1 A version of the modern four verses is first extant in Gammer Gurton s Garland or The Nursery Parnassus published in 1784 which ends with a magpie attacking the unfortunate maid 1 Fifth verses with the happier endings began to be added from the middle of the 19th century 1 Lyrics Edit nbsp Cover illustration for Randolph Caldecott s Sing a Song for Sixpence 1880 A common modern version is Sing a song of sixpence A pocket full of rye Four and twenty blackbirds Baked in a pie When the pie was opened The birds began to sing Wasn t that a dainty or dandy dish To set before the king The king was in his counting house Counting out his money The queen was in the parlour Eating bread and honey The maid was in the garden Hanging out the clothes When down came a blackbird And pecked off her nose 1 The final line of the fourth verse is sometimes slightly varied with nose pecked or nipped off One of the following additional verses is often added to moderate the ending They sent for the king s doctor Who sewed it on again He sewed it on so neatly The seam was never seen 1 or There was such a commotion That little Jenny wren Flew down into the garden And put it back again 1 Melody EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Version 1 Edit This may be the most well known version in Britain and the Commonwealth 3 nbsp source Audio playback is not supported in your browser You can download the audio file Version 2 Edit This version may be well known in the United States 4 nbsp source Audio playback is not supported in your browser You can download the audio file Meaning and interpretations EditMany interpretations have been placed on this rhyme It is known that a 16th century amusement was to place live birds in a pie as a form of entremet An Italian cookbook from 1549 translated into English in 1598 contained such a recipe 5 to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and fly out when it is cut up and this was referred to in a cook book of 1725 by John Nott 1 6 The wedding of Marie de Medici and Henry IV of France in 1600 contains some interesting parallels The first surprise though came shortly before the starter when the guests sat down unfolded their napkins and saw songbirds fly out The highlight of the meal was sherbets of milk and honey which were created by Buontalenti 7 In their 1951 The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes Iona and Peter Opie write that the rhyme has been tied to a variety of historical events or folklorish symbols such as the queen symbolizing the moon the king the sun and the blackbirds the number of hours in a day or as the authors indicate the blackbirds have been seen as an allusion to monks during the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII with Catherine of Aragon representing the queen and Anne Boleyn the maid The rye and the birds have been seen to represent a tribute sent to Henry VII and on another level the term pocketful of rye may in fact refer to an older term of measurement The number 24 has been tied to the Reformation and the printing of the English Bible with 24 letters From a folklorish tradition the blackbird taking the maid s nose has been seen as a demon stealing her soul 8 No corroborative evidence has been found to support these theories and given that the earliest version has only one stanza and mentions naughty boys and not blackbirds they can only be applicable if it is assumed that more recently printed versions accurately preserve an older tradition 1 Although there is no interpretation that is proven as true there is however one that is explicitly proven false That one is the story that Blackbeard the pirate created Sing a Song of Sixpence with its lyrics as a code to recruit crew for his pirate ship 9 10 That tale is actually false and Blackbeard had nothing to do with the song This story was created in 1999 by the website Snopes which normally proves or debunks urban legends part of a series of fabricated urban legends known as The Repository of Lost Legends whose initials read TROLL as red herrings to test people s common sense with an outlandish story 10 All the Lost Legends are fictional and the Lost Legend about Sing a Song of Sixpence is no exception 10 In this deliberate misinterpretation of Sing a Song of Sixpence and its lyrics the Sixpence referred to a Sixpence coin a decent amount of money in Blackbeard s time and the pocketful of rye was a bag pocket with whiskey rye one of the ingredients of whiskey to drink that captain Blackbeard gave to each pirate in his crew as a salary everyday 11 The blackbirds were pirates that work for Blackbeard and them Baked in a pie is the pirates setting up a ruse to raid a nearby ship to capture it 9 The pie opening and the birds singing refers to the end of the ruse and start of the raid on the nearby ship 9 The dainty dish was the ship that easily captured by the pirates after the raid and the king in both instances of the word in the song refer to Blackbeard himself 9 The lyrics The king was in his counting house Counting out his money was about how Blackbeard was wealthy enough to pay his crew their daily Sixpence and whiskey salary regardless if they captured ships that day or not 9 The Snopes page claims that this was especially attractive to pirates because as most pirate captains didn t pay salaries and pirate raids were often unsuccessful it was a common occurrence that pirate ships were forced to return to shore after several months due to lack of funds 9 The Queen mentioned was in fact Blackbeard s ship called Queen Anne s Revenge and the mention of the queen Eating bread and honey is Queen Anne s Revenge taking in supplies at port to prepare for a cruse The maid is a prize ship a ship specifically chosen to get raided the garden is the Caribbean Sea where Blackbeard and his crew carried out their raids and the clothes are the prize ship sails The mention of another blackbird pulling off the maid s nose from her face is Blackbeard bragging about his plans to raid the prize ship The version of Sing a Song of Sixpence on Snopes does not have any verse where the maid s nose is reattached to her face 9 Every Lost Legend had a link to a page explaining it was fictional and the reason for posting it 9 10 In 2003 the TV series Mostly True Stories Urban Legends Revealed used this story as a true or false question before a commercial break when it asked Was the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence used as a code to recruit pirates 12 After the break the show mistakenly claimed it was true and mentioned its supposed connection to Blackbeard implying that Snopes was used by the show s producers as a source 12 Snopes then posted a page about the mistake on their Media goofs section noting that whoever made the show apparently did not see the explanation and had fallen for a story that was fictional 12 In later airings of the episode the answer was corrected to say that the Blackbeard connection was false with Snopes page on Mostly True Stories was edited to note the correction 12 According to Snopes no public statement was made about the mistake by the show s producers 12 See also Edit nbsp Children s literature portalEntremet or subtlety an elaborate form of dish common in Europe particularly England and France during the late Middle Ages Pop out cake Four and Twenty a racehorse References Edit a b c d e f g h i j Iona and Peter Opie The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes Oxford University Press 1951 2nd ed 1997 pp 394 395 Beaumont Francis Fletcher John 31 May 1812 The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher Bonduca The island princess The loyal subject Monsieur Thomas J Ballantyne Retrieved 31 May 2023 via Google Books Sing a Song of Sixpence Spotify Sing a Song of Sixpence Spotify Giovanni de Roselli s Epulario quale tratta del modo de cucinare ogni carne ucelli pesci 1549 of which an English translation Epulario or the Italian Banquet was published in 1598 Mary Augusta Scott Elizabethan Translations from the Italian no 256 pp 333f Jenkins Jessica Kerwin The Encyclopedia of the Exquisite Nan A Talese Doubleday 2010 pp 200 201 Blow out History s 10 greatest banquets The Independent Archived 2007 02 12 at the Wayback Machine Opie p 471 a b c d e f g h Pirates and Sing a Song of Sixpence Snopes 25 April 1999 a b c d False Authority Snopes com Retrieved 31 May 2023 1 dead link a b c d e 2 dead link External links Edit nbsp Wikisource has original text related to this article Sing a Song of Sixpence nbsp Media related to Sing a Song of Sixpence at Wikimedia Commons Mikkelson David 28 April 2003 Mostly True Stories Sixpence Error Urban legends TV show falls for joke about Blackbeard s using a nursery rhyme to recruit fellow pirates Snopes com What s the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence all about StraightDope com 4 April 2001 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sing a Song of Sixpence amp oldid 1173131070, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
