Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes
By Albert Jack
Published September 29, 2009 (Paperback) Perigee Trade Paperback Original)
Always a seeker of truth, I immediately latched onto Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes. What fun! I thought at first.
Not fun. Most of these nursery rhymes told stories of bleak lives — mostly set in old England, and mostly involving the naughty royalty of several European nations. The stars of the rhymes often came to a violent end. And usually, the author Albert Jack — who has done an enormous amount of research — has found two or three possible explanations fitting the rhymes.
One nursery rhyme he swears is the truth made me happy. I never much liked being born on a Wednesday, because I am “full of woe,” according to the rhyme. But, Jack uncovered another version of the rhyme which says “Wednesday’s child is loving and giving.” Unfortunately, now Friday’s child is “full of woe,” and Jack says this new version is the correct one. Interesting that just when my life is absolutely not full of woe, that’s when this correction pops up. I’ll take it as validation.
You know the girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead, the one who, when she was bad, was horrid? When I was a kid, my mother used to tell me the rhyme was about me, because of my unruly curly hair. Yes, I straighten my hair. Every chance I get. But it was actually a sweet little poem, written by Longfellow, who was less than thrilled that people remembered what he referred to as his juvenile poetry.
Lucy Locket was a lady of ill repute. Tommy Tucker referred to the poor little orphans who actually did have to sing for their suppers. And one of the most interesting, I think — not a nursery rhyme or a song, but a symbol — was the V for Victory sign. In a time when the enemy cut off those fingers of archers they captured, surviving archers showed the first two fingers — the fingers they needed to fire the arrow.
I told you! Mean stuff! Maybe we should write new nursery rhymes based on happy stories.
