No doubt many of us grew up with our grandmother reading Mother Goose to us, while sitting on her lap. But do we really know the story behind the nursery rhymes?

Here are 5 sinister origins to some of the favorite nursery rhymes that you and I grew up with. These are the creepy details that the writers never told you, but insinuated in their little tales.

  1. Lucy Locket - A spate between two prostitutes. When Lucy Locket lost her pocket, it was because when her former wealthy lover fell on hard times and lost all of his wealth, so sent him down the road. Regardless of his loss, another prostitute, Kitty Fisher took up where Lucy left off and taunted Lucy for her actions. Prostitutes kept a ribbon around their thigh which held their money. When Kitty "found" a ribbon around him, it was a jab at Lucy Locket.
  2. Humpty Dumpty - Contrary to popular belief, because of the language in the rhyme, the egg shaped character in the nursery rhyme was anything but an egg shaped man. It was actually a cannon on the wall. The cannon was owned by the company of King Charles I and was used to control the folks of the city of Colchester during the English Civil War. The cannon sat on a church tower until cannonballs attacked it and it fell to some marshland at the bottom of the wall. When "all the kings men" tried to recover and repair the cannon, the damage was beyond repair.
  3. Ring Around The Rosey - Many people believed that this was about the Black Plague or "Black Death" as it were. The nursery rhyme was actually about 500 years after the plague made its way across Europe. In 1881 the rhyme was made famous. So as read, there really is no sinister story to it all all, but because it is so popular, we added it here.
  4. Ba Ba Black Sheep - In the 13th Century, King Edward I came to the conclusion that he could make money at taxing the sheep farmers. Because of this, about a third of the price of a sack of wool went to King Edward I, one third to the farmer and another third to the church. Black sheep are also known to be bad luck as the wool, at least back then, could not be dyed, therefore it is less money for the sheep farmer. Taxes and misery is what this tale is about.
  5. Rub-A-Dub Dub - The older version of this nursery rhyme is actually different than maybe what we read growing up. The men were actually women. It was three maids in a tub, instead of men. The way they got there was from the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker which insinuated a peep-show in town. In the 14th century, peep shows were pretty popular and the rhyme gives the hint that the three men were trying to peep at the three maids bathing in a tub.

 

 

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