Are there reasons behind rhymes?

While some rhymes are straightforward like ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, most have strange words and seemingly unconnected ideas with no obvious meaning. They seem to be just random sentences thrown together. But it is a little-known fact that most of these rhymes do have a meaning — very often sinister!

For example, the popular merry-go-round rhyme, Ring-a-ring-a-roses, is supposed to talk about the Great Plague that swept through Europe in the 1600s.

Ring-a-ring-a-roses
A pocketful of posies
Atishoo, Atishoo
We all fall down.

The first symptoms of the plague are rosy rashes on the body. Posies were carried in pockets to ward off the disease. “Atishoo” symbolised the sneezing fits, and “All fall down”, of course, indicated death.
And this rhyme:

Baa Baa Black Sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, Yes sir,
Three bags full
One for my master
One for my dame
One for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ is a lament about the burden of paying taxes. In the Middle Ages, a peasant was supposed to give one-third of his income to the King (“my master”) and one-third to the nobility (“my dame”) and he could have only the third for himself (“the little boy).

Some rhymes supposedly carry entire  stories in them.

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner
Eating a Christmas pie
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said what a good boy am I.

The story goes that the Bishop of Glastonbury sent his steward, Jack Horner, to King Henry VIII with a Christmas gift. The gift was a pie in which title deeds to 12 estates were hidden.  On his way, Jack got suspicious, dug up the pie, and stole one of the deeds — to the Manor of Mells — a “plum” estate. It is said that even to this day the Horner family lives in that estate. So Jack Horner was far from being a good boy!

Back then, rhymes were used to parody the events and the people of the day. Direct criticism of rulers or establishments was punishable by death, and so a seemingly innocent rhyme was used to spread subversive messages quickly!

Some of them spoke out against rulers, for example, this likable rhyme about Mary and her garden.

Mistress Mary
Quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells
And cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

The Mary is supposed to refer to Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII. She is said to have mercilessly punished Protestants. The “garden” here refers to her graveyard. “Silver bells” and “cockle shells” were instruments of torture, and “maids” refer to a guillotine-like instrument used to behead Protestants.

For that matter, even Jack and Jill is believed by some people to refer to XVI — Jack who was beheaded (“lost his crown”) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette — Jill (“who came tumbling after”). The actual beheading occurred during the Reign of Terror in 1793. Jack and Jill was first published is 1795, so the time also seems to concur.
Most of the rhymes presently in circulation have stories behind them. There have even been multiple interpretations for some of these rhymes.

However, some researchers also claim that nursery rhymes are just what they are — poems for young kids, and that people needlessly attribute meanings to them. Whatever the truth is, I wonder if I will ever watch a child play ring-a-ring-a roses again, and not think about the Plague!