“Who killed Cock Robin” is a traditional nursery rhyme first recorded in

1744. However, its lyrics originated in a similar story called “Phyllyp

Sparowe” written and published by John Skelton around the early 1500s.

Who killed Cock Robin? (κόκορα κοκκινολαίμη)

I, said the Sparrow,
with my bow and arrow,
I killed Cock Robin.

Who saw him die?

I, said the Fly,
with my little eye,
I saw him die.

Who caught his blood?

I, said the Fish,
with my little dish,
I caught his blood.

Who'll make the shroud?

I, said the Beetle,
with my thread and needle,
I'll make the shroud.

Who'll dig his grave?

I, said the Owl,
with my little trowel,
I'll dig his grave.

Who'll be the parson?

I, said the Rook,
with my little book,
I'll be the parson.

Who'll be the clerk?

I, said the Lark,
if it's not in the dark,
I'll be the clerk.

Who'll carry the link?

 I, said the Linnet,
I'll fetch it in a minute,
I'll carry the link.

Who'll be chief mourner?

I, said the Dove,
I mourn for my love,
I'll be chief mourner.

Who'll carry the coffin?

I, said the Kite,
if it's not through the night,
I'll carry the coffin.

Who'll bear the pall?

We, said the Wren,
both the cock and the hen,
We'll bear the pall.

Who'll sing a psalm?

I, said the Thrush,
as she sat on a bush,
I'll sing a psalm.

Who'll toll the bell?

I, said the Bull,
because I can pull,
I'll toll the bell.

All the birds of the air

fell a-sighing and a-sobbing,
when they heard the bell toll
for poor Cock Robin.

A number of the stories have been advanced to explain the meaning of

the rhyme:
 The rhyme records a mythological event, such as the death of the
god Balder from Norse mythology,[1] or the ritual sacrifice of a
king figure, as proposed by early folklorists as in the 'Cutty Wren'
theory of a 'pagan survival'.[6][7]
  It is a parody of the death of King William II, who was killed by an
arrow while hunting in the New Forest (Hampshire) in 1100, and
who was known as William Rufus, meaning "red".[8]
 The rhyme is connected with the fall of Robert Walpole's
government in 1742, since Robin is a diminutive form of Robert
and the first printing is close to the time of the events mentioned.[1]
 According to Celtic traditions, Lugh, the sun god who dies as the
nights get longer after the summer solstice, is marked in the old
Celtic pictographic calendar with a bow-and-arrow shape. Lugh
was the primary god representing the red sun and was also known
in Welsh as “Coch Rhi Ben,” anglicised to “Cock Robin”
(coch meaning red and ben meaning leader – a nod to the belief
that souls became birds after death). The sparrow who kills him
with “my bow and arrow” represents Brân the Blessed – the god of
winter in the form of a raven.
All of these theories are based on perceived similarities in the text to
legendary or historical events, or on the similarities of names. Peter
Opie pointed out that an existing rhyme could have been adapted to fit the
circumstances of political events in the eighteenth century.[1]
The theme of Cock Robin's death as well as the poem's distinctive
cadence have become archetypes, much used in literary fiction and other
works of art, from poems, to murder mysteries, to cartoons.[1]
One, two, three, four, five,
Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let him go again.
-1888

Who Killed Cock Robin?

by Maggie Van Ostrand

When we tuck our children into bed at night and tell

them fairy tales and nursery rhymes, we intend them
to nod off peacefully and have pleasant dreams. But
how pleasant can their dreams be when their sleepy
little heads are filled not with visions of sugar plums
but with fear, violence and death?

Their little heads are destined to be filled with the

same images as ours were: blind mice who run but
can't escape having their tails amputated with a
carving knife; a boy who kisses girls and makes them
cry; an old woman living in a shoe who whips her
hungry children for no reason; babies rocking in
cradles and falling down when branches break;
Solomon Grundy, born on Monday is dead by the end
of the week; Tom, the Piper's son, steals pigs; scary
spiders frighten little girls on tuffets; Humpty Dumpty
falls off a wall and can never be fixed; and monkeys
who catch weasels and pop them. How did this
carnage begin?

Some of these tales have been around for a very long

time and generally date from the 16th, 17th, and 18th
centuries as one of England's most enduring forms of
oral culture. Apparently most nursery rhymes were
originally composed for adult entertainment,
originating as popular ballads and songs.

The earliest known published collection of nursery

rhymes was Tommy Thumb's (Pretty) Song Book
(London, 1744). It included "Little Tom Tucker,"
"Sing a Song of Sixpence," and "Who Killed Cock
Robin?" The most influential was "Mother Goose's
Melody: Sonnets for the Cradle," published by John
Newberry in 1781. Among its 51 rhymes were "Jack
and Jill," "Ding Dong Bell," and "Hush-a-bye baby on
the tree top."

Hush-a-bye Baby, on the tree top,

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
According to Vikki Harris' "The Origin of Nursery
Rhymes & Mother Goose" (1997), regardless of their
malevolent words, the nursery rhymes that were
popular years ago, and still are today, can be placed
into three categories. First are the lullabies, the songs
and melodies with which most of us are familiar.
These were far from soothing but rather are said to
have been sung in order to intimidate the child and/or
used as an outlet for the emotions of the parent or
nurse:

Bye, baby bunting,

Daddy's gone a-hunting,
Gone to get a rabbit skin
To wrap the baby bunting in.
-1784
 Bye, baby bumpkin
Where's Tony Lumpkin
My lady's on her death-bed,
With eating half a pumpkin.
-1842

A second reason for the development of nursery

rhymes was as infant amusement. Counting rhymes,
and alphabet rhymes fit into this category, and are
generally non-violent.

One, two, three, four, five,

Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let him go again.
-1888

Here's A, B, C, D, E, F, and G,
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V,
W, X, Y, and Z-
And O, dear me,
When shall I learn
My A, B, C?
-1869

Tickle games were readily used for the amusement of

infants and toddlers. Perhaps the two best known are:

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man,

Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Pat it and prick it, and mark it with B,
And put it in the oven for baby and me
-1698

This little piggy went to market,

 This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried,
Wee, wee, wee
All the way home.
-1728

"It is also possible that the credit of preservation

should go to the nursery itself," explains Henry Bett in
"Nursery Rhymes and Tales - Their Origin and
History (1968) "We owe the preservation of our
nursery rhymes and nursery tales from remote ages to
the astonishing persistence of popular tradition,
reinforced by the characteristic conservatism of
childhood which insists on having rhymes repeated
the same way each time."
In the circle game Ring-around-the-rosie, links have
been made to the Great Plague of London and
Edinburgh. The lines "Ashes! Ashes! We all fall
down" or "Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush! We've all
tumbled down" is referring to the death of the people.

Ring-a-round a rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.

*******

Three blind mice

Three blind mice,
See how they run!
They all ran after a farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?

*******
 All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought 'twas all in fun.
Pop! goes the weasel.

*******

Georgie Porgie, puddin' and pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away.

(This rhyme refers to the amorous and amoral

Prince Regent who became George IV during
Regency times in England)

*******

Jack and Jill

Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

*******

Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

If you carefully reread Hansel and Gretel, you may

never again repeat it to your children:

Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter

with his wife and his two children. The boy was
 called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little
to bite and to break, and once when great dearth
fell on the land, he could no longer procure
even daily bread. Now when he thought over
this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his
anxiety, he groaned and said to his wife, what is
to become of us. How are we to feed our poor
children, when we no longer have anything
even for ourselves. I'll tell you what, husband,
answered the woman, early to-morrow morning
we will take the children out into the forest to
where it is the thickest.

There we will light a fire for them, and give

each of them one more piece of bread, and then
we will go to our work and leave them alone.
They will not find the way home again, and we
shall be rid of them. No, wife, said the man, I
will not do that. How can I bear to leave my
children alone in the forest. The wild animals
would soon come and tear them to pieces. O'
you fool, said she, then we must all four die of
hunger, you may as well plane the planks for
our coffins, and she left him no peace until he
consented. But I feel very sorry for the poor
children, all the same, said the man.

The two children had also not been able to

sleep for hunger, and had heard what their step-
mother had said to their father. Gretel wept
bitter tears, and said to Hansel, now all is over
with us.

*******

In "The Truth Behind Goldilocks," Mental Floss -

Volume 2, Richard Zachs writes that we are reading
watered-down versions of the fairy tales and that the
originals were far more graphic and brutal.
In the earliest known version (1831) of Goldilocks,
discovered in Toronto, the author, one Eleanor Mure,
a 32-year-old maiden aunt, created "The Story of The
Three Bears" for her nephew, Horace Broke.

The original "Goldilocks" was an "angry old woman"

who breaks into the bears' house because they snubbed
her during a recent social call. Once the three bears
catch the old woman, they try to figure out what to do
with her. Here's what they came up with:

On the fire they throw her, but burn her they

couldn't;
In the water they put her, but drown there she
wouldn't;
They seize her before all the wondering People,
And chuck her aloft on St. Paul's churchyard
steeple;
And if she's still there, when you earnestly
look,
You will see her quite plainly -- my dear Little
Horbook!

No other version has Goldilocks impaled on a church

steeple. The grayhaired old lady didn't become a
goldenhaired young girl until 1918.

*******

Some believe Cock Robin referred to the death of

Robin Hood, the legendary hero who stole from the
rich and gave to the poor. Robin Hood's many friends
are well represented in the poem, as creatures eager to
help. Another theory (Damon Kingshott) speculates
that the poem refers to 18th Century English Prime
Minister Robert Walpole.
 Who killed Cock Robin poem

"Who killed Cock Robin?" "I," said the

Sparrow,
"With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin."
"Who saw him die?" "I," said the Fly,
"With my little eye, I saw him die."
"Who caught his blood?" "I," said the Fish,
"With my little dish, I caught his blood."
"Who'll make the shroud?" "I," said the Beetle,
"With my thread and needle, I'll make the
shroud."
"Who'll dig his grave?" "I," said the Owl,
"With my pick and shovel, I'll dig his grave."
"Who'll be the parson?" "I," said the Rook,
"With my little book, I'll be the parson."
"Who'll be the clerk?" "I," said the Lark,
"If it's not in the dark, I'll be the clerk."
"Who'll carry the link?" "I," said the Linnet,
"I'll fetch it in a minute, I'll carry the link."
"Who'll be chief mourner?" "I," said the Dove,
"I mourn for my love, I'll be chief mourner."
"Who'll carry the coffin?" "I," said the Kite,
"If it's not through the night, I'll carry the
coffin."
"Who'll bear the pall? "We," said the Wren,
"Both the cock and the hen, we'll bear the pall."
"Who'll sing a psalm?" "I," said the Thrush,
"As she sat on a bush, I'll sing a psalm."
"Who'll toll the bell?" "I," said the bull,
"Because I can pull, I'll toll the bell."
All the birds of the air fell a-sighing and a-
sobbing,
When they heard the bell toll for poor Cock
Robin.

*******

The tales which we so fondly recall from our

childhood will be passed on to our children and
produce yet another generation of nursery lore and
gore.

Who killed Cock Robin? I did Mommy. It was fun.

© Maggie Van Ostrand

"A Balloon In Cactus" - October 8, 2018 column