| "There Was a Crooked Man" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1842 |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
"There Was a Crooked Man" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 1826. [1]
| "There Was a Crooked Man" | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1842 |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
"There Was a Crooked Man" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 1826. [1]
The rhyme was first recorded in print by James Orchard Halliwell in 1842: [2]
It gained popularity in the early twentieth century. [3] One legend suggests [4] that this nursery rhyme originated in the once prosperous wool merchant's village of Lavenham, about 70 miles northeast of London, having been inspired by its multicolored half-timbered houses leaning at irregular angles as if they are supporting each other. One Lavenham house in particular, 'The Crooked House' is often cited as the inspiration for the rhyme. [5]
Other sources [6] state that the poem originates from British history, specifically the period of the Scottish Stuart King Charles I of England (reigned 1625–1649). The crooked man is reputed to be the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie, who signed a covenant securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The "crooked stile" in the poem was the alliance between the parliaments of England and Scotland or the border between the two, depending on the source. "They all lived together in a little crooked house" refers to the fact that the English and Scots had at last come to an agreement, despite the continuing great animosity between the two peoples, who nonetheless had to live with each other due to their common border. [7] [8]
The great recoinage around 1696 led to sixpence coins that were made of very thin silver and were easily bent, becoming "crooked". [9]
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.
"Ladybird, Ladybird" is the first line of an English-language nursery rhyme that also has German analogues. It is included in the Roud Folk Song Index as number of 16215.
"Hey Diddle Diddle" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.
"Jack Be Nimble" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13902.
"Jack Sprat" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19479.
"Rain, Rain, Go Away" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19096.
"Solomon Grundy" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19299.
"Lucy Locket" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19536.
"Wee Willie Winkie" is a Scottish nursery rhyme whose titular figure has become popular as a personification of sleep. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13711.
"Tinker, Tailor" is a counting game, nursery rhyme and fortune telling song traditionally played in England, that can be used to count cherry stones, buttons, daisy petals and other items. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 802. It is commonly used by children in both Britain and America for "counting out", e.g. for choosing who shall be "It" in a game of tag.
"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme and counting-out rhyme of which there are early occurrences in the US and UK. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11284.
"As I was going by Charing Cross", is an English language nursery rhyme. The rhyme was first recorded in the 1840s, but it may have older origins in street cries and verse of the seventeenth century. It refers to the equestrian statue of King Charles I in Charing Cross, London, and may allude to his death or be a puritan satire on royalist reactions to his execution. It was not recorded in its modern form until the mid-nineteenth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20564.
Hot Cross Buns was an English street cry, later perpetuated as a nursery rhyme and an aid in musical education. It refers to the spiced English confection known as a hot cross bun, which is associated with the end of Lent and is eaten on Good Friday in various countries. The song has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13029.
"Needles and Pins" is an English language proverb and nursery rhyme and was first recorded in the proverbs section of James Orchard Halliwell's The Nursery Rhymes of England (1842). Since then it has appeared largely unchanged in many other collections of nursery rhymes. Its usual form is
"Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top" is a nursery rhyme and lullaby. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2768.
"Little Poll Parrot" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20178.
"Taffy was a Welshman" is an English language nursery rhyme which was popular between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19237.
"Girls and Boys Come Out to Play" or "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" is a nursery rhyme that has existed since at least 1708. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5452.
'I Had a Little Nut Tree' is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3749.
"Arthur o' Bower" is a short British nursery rhyme or rhymed riddle originally published in 1805 but known, on the evidence of a letter by William Wordsworth, to have been current in the late 18th century in Cumberland. The title character is a personification of a storm wind, sometimes believed to represent King Arthur in his character as storm god or leader of the Wild Hunt. The Roud Folk Song Index, which catalogues folk songs and their variations by number, classifies this rhyme as 22839.
