Little Miss Muffet
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| "Little Miss Muffet" Roud #20605 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | 1805 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery Rhyme |
"Little Miss Muffet" is a nursery rhyme, one of the most commonly printed in the mid-twentieth century.[1] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20605.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
- 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.[1]
[edit] Origins and meaning
The rhyme first appeared in print in 1805, in a book titled Songs for the Nursery. Like many such rhymes, its origins are unclear. Some claim it was written by Dr. Thomas Muffet (d.1604), a sixteenth-century English entomologist, for his stepdaughters; others claim it refers to Mary, Queen of Scots (1543-87), who was said to have been frightened by religious reformer John Knox (1510-72).[2] The former explanation is speculative and the latter is doubted by most literary scholars, who note that stories linking folk tales or songs to political events are often urban legends.[1]
[edit] Alternative Lyrics
There is also an alternative set of lyrics which has been taught in some countries where whey is not a common food stuff.[3] In the nineteenth century the rhyme existed in many alternative versions including: 'Little Mary Ester, Sat upon a tester' (1812); 'Little Miss Mopsey, Sat in the shopsey' (1842). These rhymes may be parodies of whichever is the original.[1]
In the 1960 revue Beyond the Fringe, the English humourist and musician Dudley Moore sang Little Miss Muffet in the style of Peter Pears and as if it had been set to music by Benjamin Britten.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 323-4.
- ^ 'Was Little Miss Muffet a local girl?'. http://www.brookmans.com/history/littlemissmuffet.shtml, retrieved 02/04/09.
- ^ A. Sorby, Schoolroom Poets: Childhood and the Place of American Poetry, 1865-1917 (UPNE, 2005), p. 80.
