Little Bo Peep
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| "Little Bo Peep" Roud #6487 |
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| Written by | Traditional |
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| Published | c. 1805 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery Rhyme |
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‘Little Bo Peep’ or ‘Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep’ is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6487.
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[edit] Lyrics
As with most products of oral tradition, there are many variations to the rhyme. The most common modern version is:
- Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
- And can't tell where to find them;
- Leave them alone, And they'll come home,
- Wagging their tails behind them.[1]
Common variations on second line include "And doesn't know where to find them". The fourth line is frequently give as "And bring their tails behind them". This alternative version is useful in the extended version, usually of four further stanzas.
[edit] Additional verses
The following additional verses are often added to the rhyme:
- Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,
- And dreamt she heard them bleating;
- But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
- For they were still a-fleeting.
- Then up she took her little crook,
- Determined for to find them;
- She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
- For they'd left their tails behind them.
- It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
- Into a meadow hard by,
- There she espied their tails side by side,
- All hung on a tree to dry.
- She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye,
- And over the hillocks went rambling,
- And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,
- To tack each again to its lambkin.[1]
[edit] Origins and history
The earliest record of this rhyme is in a manuscript of around 1805, which contains only the first verse.[1] There are references to a children's game called "Bo-Peep", from the sixteenth century, including one in Shakespeare's King Lear (Act I Scene iv), but little evidence that the rhyme existed.[1] The additional verses are first recorded in the earliest printed version in a version of Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus in 1810.[1]
[edit] In popular culture
- The character appears as 'Bo Peep', a ceramic doll, in the animated films Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999).
- In the 1950s, comedian Johnny Standley recorded a line-by-line commentary on the poem, titled "It's in the Book." He ridicules what he sees as the simplistic attitude of the person addressing Bo Peep, and ends his commentary up with "wagging their tails: Pray tell, what else could they wag?!" behind them. Did we think they'd wag them in front?!!"
- In the anime Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo she is given the name "Little Bobobo-Peep".
- In the continuity of the Fables comic book from Vertigo, she is the wife of Peter Piper, and lives in Fabletown's northern branch, the "Farm." Her story, along with that of Peter and his evil brother Max (the future Pied Piper of Hamelin, is told in Bill Willingham's novel Peter and Max.
[edit] External links
- "The History of Bo Peep", http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/A-C/biblst/DJACcurrres/Postmodern2/Bo.html, satire on modern literary criticism.
