nursery rhymes

[miriam_e]

Amazing what you can find on the web.

I'd always thought that Jack Horner was a Mayor of London who had been on the take and that was what the nursery rhyme was about. But I was wrong.

Little Jack Horner
sat in the corner
eating his Christmas pie
He stuck in his thumb,
pulled out a plum
and said "What a good boy am I!"

I just looked up
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/little_jack_horner.htm
where it says:

"16th Century history origin to the Little Jack Horner story. Little Jack Horner was reputed to have been the Steward to the Bishop of Glastonbury. The steward, or Little Jack Horner, was sent to King Henry VIII with a Christmas gift of twelve title deeds to various English manorial estates. Jack (Little Jack Horner) stole the deed to the manor of Mells (it being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors). The remaining eleven manors were given to the crown but the manor of Mells became the property of the Horner family! The manor of Mells was situated in France and this is where Little Jack Horner moved to! The first publication date for the lyrics to the Little Jack Horner rhyme is 1725."

Odd though. I believe Mells is in Somerset in England. The last son of the Horner family line is buried at St Andrews church there, having died in World War 1, I think.

Another site, http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/History/NurseryRhymes.html#anchor128910
says something similar:

"Jack lived during the reign of England's Henry VIII. The plum he pulled out was a fine estate he received from the lands Henry VIII seized from the church."

That sounds like a more reasonable explanation.


But I wondered who the heck George was:

Georgie-porgie, pudding and pie
kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie-porgie ran away.

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/georgie_porgie.htm says of this:

"The origins of the lyrics to "Georgie Porgie" are English and refer to George (Georgie Porgie), the Duke of Buckingham, from the 17th century. His highly suspect morality was much in question! This, however, was overlooked due to his friendship with King Charles II (who also had a suspect reputation and was famous for his liaison with Nell Gwynne) The parliament finally lost patience and stopped the Kind [King] intervening on behalf of "Georgie Porgie"- at this point all of the jealous husbands vowed to wreak their revenge causing Georgie Porgie to 'run away'!"