Who knew?!!!

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
and pretty maids all in a row.

This is part of a series of illustrations I did back in 2005. I thought of them recently as Emma's teacher has been visiting every week to work with her. This weeks lessons are on nursery rhymes.
When I was doing these illustrations, I came across several things such as Little Miss Muffet's Tuffet, that I found I didn't really know what they were. How do you draw a tuffet if you don't know what it is? In most drawings, it is depicted as an upholstered bench of some sort. But through my research, I found that it is actually just a tuft of grass. - who knew?! I found the most interesting website that tells all about the history and meaning of nursery rhymes and became rather fascinated with them.

Did you know that in the days before TV, ipods, and the internet, that people entertained each other through singing, storytelling and reciting poetry? I found that nursery rhymes are actually an early form of political satire. To speak out right against royalty would get you killed. So, in a light hearted satirical way, these rhymes were performed and passed down orally to make light of politics of the day. They weren't written for children at all! Mary, Mary quite contrary is one of my favorites, so I'll share it's meaning with you.

"The Mary alluded to in this traditional English nursery rhyme is reputed to be Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary, who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and the garden referred to is an allusion to graveyards which were increasing in size with those who dared to continue to adhere to the Protestant faith - Protestant martyrs."

The silver bells and cockle shells referred to in the Nursery Rhyme were colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' were thumbscrews which crushed the thumb between two hard surfaces by the tightening of a screw. The 'cockleshells' were believed to be instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals!

The 'maids' were a device to behead people called the Maiden. Beheading a victim was fraught with problems. It could take up to 11 blows to actually sever the head, the victim often resisted and had to be chased around the scaffold. Margaret Pole (1473 - 1541), Countess of Salisbury did not go willingly to her death and had to be chased and hacked at by the Executioner. These problems led to the invention of a mechanical instrument (now known as the guillotine) called the Maiden - shortened to Maids in the Mary Mary Nursery Rhyme. The Maiden had long been in use in England before Lord Morton, regent of Scotland during the minority of James VI, had a copy constructed from the Maiden which had been used in Halifax in Yorkshire. Ironically, Lord Morton fell from favour and was the first to experience the Maiden in Scotland.

You'll think differently about this next time you sit down to read it to your little ones. Even knowing the true meanings, and knowing that they are not so innocent - I absolutely LOVE nursery rhymes. Check back again. I may post more - if you are interested.

* this information was found on the website www.rhymes.org.uk