Sing a Song of Sixpence
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Sing a Song of Sixpence is a well known English nursery rhyme, coming at least from the 18th century.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
- 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.
- Now, wasn't that a dainty 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!
[edit] History
The rhyme's origins are uncertain; two main competing theories circulating on the Internet are:
- It first appeared in Volume II of Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published around 1744 [1], and almost certainly is older than that
- It was written, perhaps by the literary critic George Stevens [2], to satirize the poetry of Henry James Pye, the British Poet Laureate from 1790-1813 [3] [4]. Certainly Byron plays on the rhyme in the scornful Dedication of his Don Juan to the next Laureate, Robert Southey.
Adding to the confusion, a spoof origin posted on the Lost Legends section of Snopes.com - that the song was originally used by Blackbeard's pirates to attract new members - has been accepted as the real origin by some people.
The Straight Dope in its analysis of the rhyme states:
- according to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, an Italian cookbook from 1549 (translated into English in 1598) actually contains a recipe "to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and flie out when it is cut up." The ODNR also cites a 1723 cook who describes this as an earlier practice, the idea being that the birds cause "a diverting Hurley-Burley amongst the Guests."
The wedding of Marie de Medici and Henri 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."[1]
Agatha Christie's 1953 Miss Marple mystery A Pocket Full of Rye features the rhyme.
The line "Four and Twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" is thought by some to be the origin of 420's significance within cannabis culture.
In Three Stooges 1947 short feature Sing a Song of Six Pants, the trio plays tailors who fight a bank robber's gang.
[1] http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_and_drink/features/article2255670.ece
[edit] See also
- Subtlety, an elaborate form of dish common in Europe, particularly England and France, during the late Middle Ages
- Lyrics of the Tom Waits song "Midnight Lullaby", from the 1973 album "Closing Time"
