"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" is an English nursery rhyme, the earliest printed version of which dates from around 1744. The words have barely changed in two and a half centuries. It is sung to a variant of the 18th century French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman".
The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes gives the following modern version: [1]
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
The rhyme is a single stanza in trochaic metre, common in nursery rhymes and relatively easy for younger children. [2] The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the song as 4439; variants have been collected across Great Britain and North America. [3]
The rhyme is sung to a variant of the 18th century French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", [1] also used for "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Little Polly Flinders", and "The ABC Song". The words and melody were first published together by A. H. Rosewig in (Illustrated National) Nursery Songs and Games, published in Philadelphia in 1879. [4]
The text was translated to Swedish by August Strindberg for "Barnen i skogen" (1872), a Swedish edition of "Babes in the Wood". To this Swedish text a melody was written by Alice Tegnér for publication in the songbook Sjung med oss, Mamma! (1892). "Bä, bä, vita lamm", in which the black sheep is replaced with a white lamb, has become one of the most popular Swedish children's songs. [5]
The rhyme was first printed in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book of about 1744, with words very similar to the modern version:
Bah, Bah, a black Sheep,
Have you any Wool,
Yes merry have I,
Three Bags full,
One for my Master,
One for my Dame,
One for my Little Boy
That lives in the lane. [1]
In the next surviving printing, in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), the text remained the same, except the last lines, which were given as, "But none for the little boy who cries in the lane". [1]
As with many nursery rhymes, attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme, most of which have no corroborating evidence. [1] Katherine Elwes Thomas in The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930) suggested the rhyme referred to resentment at the heavy taxation on wool. [6] This has been taken to refer to the medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century. [1] More recently the rhyme has been alleged to have a connection to the slave trade, particularly in the southern United States. [7] This explanation was advanced during debates over political correctness and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but has no supporting historical evidence. [8] Rather than being negative, the wool of black sheep may have been prized as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing. [7]
In 1986 the British popular press reported a controversy over the rhyme's language, suggesting that "black" was being treated as a racial term. This was based on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery as an exercise for the children there. [9] A similar controversy emerged in 1999 when reservations about the rhyme were submitted to Birmingham City Council by a working group on racism in children's resources. [10] Two private nurseries in Oxfordshire in 2006 altered the song to "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep", with "black" being replaced with a variety of other adjectives such as "happy", "sad", "hopping" and "pink". [11] Commentators have asserted that these controversies have been exaggerated or distorted by some elements of the press as part of a general campaign against political correctness. [9]
In 2014, there was reportedly a similar controversy in the Australian state of Victoria. [12]
The phrase "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir" has been used in reference to an obsequious or craven subordinate. It is attested from 1910, and originally was common in the British Royal Navy. [13]
The rhyme has often appeared in literature and popular culture. Rudyard Kipling used it as the title of an 1888 semi-autobiographical short story. [6] The name Black Sheep Squadron was used for the Marine Attack Squadron 214 of the United States Marine Corps from 1942 and the title Baa Baa Black Sheep was used for a book by its leader Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and for a TV series (later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron ) that aired on NBC from 1976 until 1978. [14] In 1951, together with "In the Mood", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was the first song ever to be digitally saved and played on a computer. [15]
"The ABC Song" is the best-known song used to recite the English alphabet in alphabetical order. It is commonly used to teach the alphabet to children in English-speaking countries. "The ABC Song" was first copyrighted in 1835 by Boston music publisher Charles Bradlee. The melody is from a 1761 French music book and is also used in other nursery rhymes like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", while the author of the lyrics is unknown. Songs set to the same melody are also used to teach the alphabets of other languages.
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is an English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem written by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is now sung to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", which was first published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman". The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known.
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth-century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs. Its origins are obscure, and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings.
Mother Goose is a character that originated in children's fiction, as the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. She also appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. The character also appears in a pantomime tracing its roots to 1806.
Accentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line regardless of the number of syllables that are present. It is common in languages that are stress-timed, such as English, as opposed to syllabic verse which is common in syllable-timed languages, such as French.
"Hey Diddle Diddle" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.
"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man", "Pat-a-Cake", "Patty-cake" or "Pattycake" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6486.
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep is an English nursery rhyme.
"Jack Sprat" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19479.
A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied in some cultures more than others, they appear to be universal in human society.
"Pease Porridge Hot" or "Pease Pudding Hot" is an English children's singing game and nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19631.
"See Saw Margery Daw" is an English language nursery rhyme, folk song and playground singing game. The rhyme first appeared in its modern form in Mother Goose's Melody, published in London in around 1765. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13028.
"Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top" is a nursery rhyme and lullaby. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2768.
Childlore is the folklore or folk culture of children and young people. It includes, for example, rhymes and games played in the school playground. The best known researchers of the field were Iona and Peter Opie.
Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman", K. 265/300e, is a piano composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed when he was around 25 years old. This piece consists of twelve variations on the French folk song "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman". The French melody first appeared in 1761, and has been used for many children's songs, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", and the "Alphabet Song".
Alice Charlotta Tegnér was a Swedish music teacher, poet and composer. She is the foremost composer of Swedish children's songs during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Rub-A-Dub-Dub was a British television series animated by Peter Lang and Alan Rogers of the Cut-Out Animation Co. They were previously famous for Pigeon Street. The series was produced by David Yates and Joe Wolf. The title is a reference to the nursery rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub. Rub-A-Dub-Dub was animated in a similar way, yet all the characters were anthropomorphic animals. It ran in 1984, completing 25 episodes.
Gammer Gurton's Garland: or, The Nursery Parnassus, edited by the literary antiquary Joseph Ritson, is one of the earliest collections of English nursery rhymes. It was first published as a chapbook in 1784, but was three times reprinted in expanded editions during the following century, as were several unrelated children's books with similar titles. Gammer Gurton's Garland put into print for the first time some of our best-known nursery rhymes.
"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" is a popular children's song in France. Since its composition in the 18th century, the melody has been applied to numerous lyrics in multiple languages – the English-language song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one such example. It was adapted in Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Georg Joseph Vogler also composed a set of varations using the same theme.
