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Heavy Words Lightly Throw: The Reason Behind the Rhyme
Chris Roberts
Was Little Jack Horner a squatter? "Baa Baa Black Sheep" a bleat about taxation? What did Jack and Jill really do on that hill? Chris Roberts reveals the seamy and quirky stories behind our favorite nursery rhymes.
Gotham
August 2005
224 pages ISBN: 1592401309 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Nursery rhymes are rarely as innocent as they seem—there is
a wealth of concealed meaning in our familiar childhood
verse. More than a century after Queen Victoria decided that
children were better off without the full story, London
librarian Chris Roberts brings the truth to light. He traces
the origins of the subtle phrases and antiquated references,
revealing religious hatred, political subversion, and sexual
innuendo. Roberts reveals that when Jack, nimble and quick, jumped
over a candlestick, he was reenacting a popular sport that
tested whether a person was lean and healthy. Humpty Dumpty
was actually a cannon mounted on the walls of a church in
Colchester, blown up during the English Civil War. Few know
that the cockles in "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" actually
refer to cuckolds in the promiscuous court of Mary Queen of
Scots. Or that "Rub-a-dub-dub, three maids in a tub" was
inspired by a fairground peepshow. A fascinating history lesson that makes astonishing
connections to contemporary popular culture, Heavy Words
Lightly Thrown is for Anglophiles, parents, history buffs,
and anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of
rhymes. The book features a glossary of slang and historical
terms, and spooky silhouettes of nursery-rhyme characters to
accompany the rhymes. Mother Goose will never look the same
again.
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