Simple Simon (nursery rhyme)
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This article is about the nursery rhyme. For other uses, see Simple Simon.
| "Simple Simon" Roud #19777 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | 1764 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery Rhyme |
"Simple Simon" is a is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19777.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
A modern version of the first two verses is:
- Simple Simon met a pieman
- Going to the fair;
- Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
- Let me taste your ware.
- Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
- Show me first your penny;
- Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
- Indeed I have not any.[1]
[edit] Origins
The verses used today are the first of a longer chapbook history first published in 1764.[1] The character of Simple Simon may have been in circulation much longer, possibly appearing in an Elizabethan chapbook and in a ballad, Simple Simon's Misfortunes and his Wife Margery's Cruelty, from about 1685.[1]
[edit] In popular culture
- Laurel and Hardy "played", respectively, Simple Simon and the pieman in Walt Disney's animated short, Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.
- The Three Stooges did a variant version, which began the usual way, and ended:
- Said de pieman to Simple Simon,
- "Foist let me see yah penny."
- Said Simple Simon to de pieman,
- "Nah! Ya don't get any!"
- (And a pie in the face)
- In the film Die Hard With A Vengeance, the antagonist Simon Gruber's, played by Jeremy Irons, first lines in the film are a taunt to the police:
- "Said Simple Simon to the pie man going to the fair: Give me your pies... or I'll cave your head in."
- Another variant of the nursery rhyme was an animated film on Sesame Street, in which instead of the pieman, Simple Simon meets three weird looking animals; a wingless duck with boots, a sheep with two small legs, and a snake with wings and boots. He presumes that something is wrong, and while he's thinking, the animals correct themselves until they have their correct parts. Then, somewhat late, Simple Simon has figured out what's wrong: "Sheep don't wear boots!"
