The Dark Side of Nursery Rhymes

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away

 

The Dark Side of Nursery Rhymes


It seems to me that a lot of nursery rhymes have a bit of a dark nature to them.


Here are a few for instance:


Ring Around the Rosie - Supposedly about England's Great Plague or the earlier Black Death.

 

It's Raining It's Pouring - About deaths of the elderly.

 

There was an Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe - About child

abuse.

 

Mary Mary Quite Contrary - About Queen Mary 1, the execution of thousands of Protestants in England during her reign. 

 

Jack and Jill - About France’s Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, who were convicted of treason during the French Revolution and both were beheaded.

 

Little Miss Muffet - Stepfather of a small girl named Patience Muffet. Dr. Muffet was an entomologist who loved insects, especially spiders and his daughter was frightened by them.