Re: History of Nursery Rhymes
Posted by Margaret Adamczak on January 25, 2003 at 15:55:17:
In Reply to: History of Nursery Rhymes posted by Lucy White on September 05, 2000 at 14:55:20:
if anyone is looking for the histiry of "Ring Around The Rosie" and what it had to do with the pleague here is some info.
"Ring Around The Rosie."
The first line, "ring around the rosy," speaks of the festering sores that appear on the skin of victims of the plague. The lesions start out as rosy lumps with discolored rings around them. They eventually turn black.
Next is "pockets full of posies." Flowers were placed in the pockets of the living and the dead for a two-fold reason. It was thought that the disease was transmitted by the smell of it, so flowers were used to ward it off, as well as to give relief from the foul odor.
The last line of the rhyme, "ashes, ashes, we all fall down," speaks of burning the bodies of the victims. They would pile one body on top of the other, and as the fire turned them into ashes, the pile would sink to the ground. This could also speak of the particular way people would just fall down and die from the plague.
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