Nursery rhyme

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This article is about the traditional poems or songs for children. For a Japanese
galgame, see Nursery Rhyme (visual novel).
See also: Children's music and Children's song

Illustration of "Hey Diddle Diddle", a well-known nursery rhyme

A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many
other countries, but usage of the term only dates from the late 18th/early 19th
century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.[1]

From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays, and
most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries.[2] The first English
collections, Tommy Thumb's Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book,
were published by Mary Cooper in 1744. Publisher John Newbery's stepson, Thomas
Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he
published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for
the Cradle (London, 1780).[note 1]

Contents
1 History
1.1 Lullabies
1.2 Early nursery rhymes
1.3 19th century
1.4 20th century
2 Meanings of nursery rhymes
3 Nursery rhyme revisionism
4 Nursery rhymes and education
5 See also
6 Notes
7 Citations
8 External links
History
Lullabies
Main article: Lullaby
The oldest children's songs of which we have records are lullabies, intended to
help a child fall asleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture.[4] The
English term lullaby is thought to come from "lu, lu" or "la la" sounds made by
mothers or nurses to calm children, and "by by" or "bye bye", either another
lulling sound or a term for good night.[5] Until the modern era lullabies were
usually only recorded incidentally in written sources. The Roman nurses' lullaby,
"Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacta", is recorded in a scholium on Persius
and may be the oldest to survive.[4]

Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of Jesus take the form of a
lullaby, including "Lullay, my liking, my dere son, my sweting" and may be versions
of contemporary lullabies.[5] However, most of those used today date from the 17th
century. For example, a well known lullaby such as "Rock-a-bye, baby on a tree
top", cannot be found in records until the late-18th century when it was printed by
John Newbery (c. 1765).[5]

Early nursery rhymes

"Three Blinde Mice" (1609), published by Thomas Ravenscroft.[6]

A French poem, similar to "Thirty days hath September", numbering the days of the
month, was recorded in the 13th century.[7] From the later Middle Ages there are
records of short children's rhyming songs, often as marginalia.[8] From the mid-
16th century they begin to be recorded in English plays.[2] "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-
cake, baker's man" is one of the oldest surviving English nursery rhymes. The
earliest recorded version of the rhyme appears in Thomas d'Urfey's play The
Campaigners from 1698. Most nursery rhymes were not written down until the 18th
century, when the publishing of children's books began to move from polemic and
education towards entertainment, but there is evidence for many rhymes existing
before this, including "To market, to market" and "Cock a doodle doo", which date
from at least the late 16th century.[9] Nursery rhymes with 17th century origins
include, "Jack Sprat" (1639), "The Grand Old Duke of York" (1642), "Lavender's
Blue" (1672) and "Rain Rain Go Away" (1687).[10]

MENU0:00
"Oranges and Lemons" (1744) is set to the tune of the bells of St Clement Danes, an
Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London.
The first English collections, Tommy Thumb's Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb's
Pretty Song Book, were published by Mary Cooper in London in 1744, with such songs
becoming known as 'Tommy Thumb's songs'.[11][12] A copy of the latter is held in
the British Library.[13] John Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to
use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of
English rhymes, Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (London, 1780).
[14][15] These rhymes seem to have come from a variety of sources, including
traditional riddles, proverbs, ballads, lines of Mummers' plays, drinking songs,
historical events, and, it has been suggested, ancient pagan rituals.[3] About half
of the currently recognised "traditional" English rhymes were known by the mid-18th
century.[16]

19th century

Popular Nursery Tales and Rhymes, Warner & Routledge, London, c. 1859
In the early 19th century printed collections of rhymes began to spread to other
countries, including Robert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826) and in the
United States, Mother Goose's Melodies (1833).[3] From this period we sometimes
know the origins and authors of rhymes—for instance, in "Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star" which combines the melody of an 18th-century French tune "Ah vous dirai-je,
Maman" with a 19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor entitled "The Star" used as
lyrics.[17]

Early folk song collectors also often collected (what are now known as) nursery
rhymes, including in Scotland Sir Walter Scott and in Germany Clemens Brentano and
Achim von Arnim in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806–1808).[18] The first, and possibly
the most important academic collection to focus in this area was James Orchard
Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842) and Popular Rhymes and Tales in
1849, in which he divided rhymes into antiquities (historical), fireside stories,
game-rhymes, alphabet-rhymes, riddles, nature-rhymes, places and families,
proverbs, superstitions, customs, and nursery songs (lullabies).[19] By the time of
Sabine Baring-Gould's A Book of Nursery Songs (1895), folklore was an academic
study, full of comments and footnotes. A professional anthropologist, Andrew Lang
(1844–1912) produced The Nursery Rhyme Book in 1897.

20th century
The early years of the 20th century are notable for the illustrations to children's
books including Randolph Caldecott's Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (1909) and
Arthur Rackham's Mother Goose (1913). The definitive study of English rhymes
remains the work of Iona and Peter Opie.[16]