Solomon Grundy (nursery rhyme)

Not to be confused with Salmagundi or Solomon Gundy.

"Here lies ye bodye of Solomon Grundy. Died on Saturday..." An illustration from Clara E. Atwood's 1901 A Book of Nursery Rhymes

"Solomon Grundy" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19299. ^[1]

Lyrics

The rhyme has varied very little since it was first collected by James Orchard Halliwell and published in 1842 with the lyrics:

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday.
This is the end
Of Solomon Grundy. ^[2]

The words of a French version of the rhyme were adapted by the Dada poet Philippe Soupault in 1921 and published as an account of his own life:

PHILIPPE SOUPAULT dans son lit / né un lundi / baptisé un mardi / marié un mercredi / malade un jeudi / agonisant un vendredi / mort un samedi / enterré un dimanche / c'est la vie de Philippe Soupault ^{[3] [4]}

See also

• Children's literature portal

• "Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron", a traditional English folk song written in the 19th century about a housewife carrying out one part of her linen chores each day of the week
• "Monday's Child", a traditional English rhyme mentioning the days of the week
• Solomon Grundy (character), DC Comics character named after the rhyme

References

1. "Roud Folksong Index S276827Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library . English Folk Dance and Song Society . Retrieved 20 May 2016.
2. I. Opie and P. Opie (1951). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (2nd edn., 1997) ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 467-9.
3. Stewart, Susan (1979). Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature. Johns Hopkins. p. 191. ISBN   0-8018-2258-0.
4. Littérature 19, May 1921, included under the title "Les chansons des buts et des rois" (PDF). among several other adaptations of nursery rhymes