I do not like thee, Doctor Fell

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell is a nursery rhyme, said to have been written by satirical English poet Tom Brown in 1680.^[1][2]

Origin and basis

The anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme is that when Brown was a student at the Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief. The dean of Christ Church, John Fell (1625–1686), who later went on to become the Bishop of Oxford, expelled Brown; but offered to take him back if he passed a test. If Brown could extemporaneously translate the thirty-second epigram of Martial (a well known Roman epigramist), his expulsion would be cancelled. The epigram in Latin is as follows:

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;

Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.^[3]

Brown made the impromptu English translation which became the verse:

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,

The reason why - I cannot tell;

But this I know, and know full well,

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.^[3]

Recognition

The nursery rhyme "I do not like thee, Doctor Fell" was not included in Mother Goose collections until 1926, following the rhyme's inclusion in "Less-Familiar Nursery Rhymes" by Robert Graves of I, Claudius fame.

In popular culture

• Doctor Fell has since been used in other literature, such as by the author Thomas Harris, who used the name as a pseudonym for his most famous antagonist, the cannibalistic psychiatrist, socialite and serial killer Hannibal Lecter in his novel Hannibal.
• The 1979 Bernard Farrell play I Do Not Like Thee, Doctor Fell, used the rhyme as its title.
• Justice Stephen Breyer used this nursery rhyme during oral argument in Lawrence v. Texas.^[4]
• Doctor Fell is the title of a song by Irish singer Juliet Turner.

References