Baa Baa Black Sheep

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.

Thank you said the Master, thank you said the Dame,
Thank you said the little boy who lives down the lane.

The last two lines are most definitely a modern addition to this old rhyme, reflecting perhaps the permeation of victorian values of politeness across wider society, minding one’s pleases and thankyous! Apparently, there have also been moves to change the word black because of its racial overtones. However, the words to the first part of the first have hardly changed in 250 years so it seems unlikely that they will now.

You may have noticed that the tune is essentially the same as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which is the old French tune for ‘Ah vous dirai je, maman’.

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep,
And doesn’t know where to find them,
Leave them alone, and they will come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, the reason we know that this song existed in the 18th century is because Little Bo Peep appeared in, of all songs, a version of Yankee Doodle! Seems people were concerned about losing animals and their tails at that time, as there is another little rhyme, about Jemima losing her Mare, who’ll come by in time with her tail behind her. Below is Walter Crane’s romantic illustration of the song..

There are some further verses to the song

Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she heard them bleating;
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were still a-fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,
Determined for to find them;
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they’d left their tails behind them.

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks went rambling,
And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,
To tack each again to its lambkin.

I like the fact that Bo Peep, which is the name of a very old baby amusement game, is probably hide and seek.

Bo-peep, Little Bo-peep,
Now’s the time for hide and seek.

Little Bo Peep obviously isn’t so good at that game!

Little Boy Blue

Little boy blue, come blow your horn,
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn,
Where’s the boy who looks after the sheep,
He’s under the haystack fast asleep.
Will you wake him, no not I,
For if I do, he’s sure to cry.

This is one my personal all-time favourites. I love the words, the image of the little boy who is old enough to be given this responsibility, yet young enough to cry if woken up, and the tune is charming. It’s first know publishing date is around 1740 in Tommy Thumb’s Little Song Book.

Mary had a little lamb

Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow.
Everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went,
Everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.

This song is one of those that seems to lend itself to different tunes and all sorts of additional verses. According to wikipedia the rhyme can be attributed to Sarah Josepha Hale who was an American school teacher. In versions I have come across the first verse is usually the same, and the lamb often goes to school, but thereafter Mary and her little lamb can go anywhere! It obviously appeals to the imagination, as versions of the song have been recorded by the likes of Otis Redding, Paul McCartney and Stevie Ray Vaughn.