Rub-a-dub-dub
| "Rub-A-Dub-Dub" Roud #3101 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | 1798 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
"Rub-A-Dub-Dub" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3101.
[edit] Lyrics
This rhyme exists in many variations. Among those current today is:
- Rub-a-dub-dub,
- Three pigs in a tub,
And how do you think they got there?
- The butcher, the baker,
- The candlestick-maker,
- They all jumped out of a rotten potato,
'Twas enough to make a man stare.[1]
[edit] Origins and meaning
The earliest versions of this rhyme published differ significantly in their wording. The first recorded version is in Christmas Box published in London in 1798 has similar wording to that in Mother Goose's Quarto or Melodies Complete, published in Boston, Massachusetts around 1825, which had the following version:
Hey! rub-a-dub, ho! rub-a-dub, three maids in a tub,
And who do you think were there?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker,
And all of them gone to the fair.[1]
This led Iona and Peter Opie to conclude that they were three respectable townsfolk "watching a dubious sideshow at a local fair".[1]
By around 1830 the reference to maids was being removed from the versions printed in nursery books. In 1842 James Orchard Halliwell collected the following version:
Rub a dub dub,
Three men in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker.
Turn them out, knaves all three.[1]
