The original meaning of some nursery rhymes

[pjohns]

I learned, just today, that those nursery rhymes that we all learned as children--and that seemed so utterly innocuous--were actually about real people (usually kings or queens); and that these people were referred to in a (somewhat thinly) veiled way, so that the author would not be hanged--or, worse yet, burned at the stake.

Here are some examples:

Three Blind Mice – Henry VIII’s 1st Protestant archbishop; Hugh Lattimer; Matthew Ridley

Little Tommy’s Tittlemouse – about the monks

Little Boy Blue – Cardinal Woolsey (his favorite color was blue)

Sheep is in the meadow – Cardinal Woolsey

Jack and Jill – an attempt to get the French king to marry Mary Tudor

Sing a Song of Six Pence – 20 deeds of property for Henry VIII