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A Quirky Look at the History of Nursery Rhymes - Castles, Customs and Kings Blog Hop

9/30/2015

 
I am honoured and thrilled to be included as a contributor to CASTLES, CUSTOMS AND KINGS Volume 2, produced by the wonderful people at English Historical Fiction Authors. 
Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English HistoricalFiction Authors, Volume 2 
Edited by Debra Brown and Sue Millard
An anthology of essays from the second year of the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book transports the reader across the centuries from prehistoric to twentieth century Britain. Nearly fifty different authors share the stories, incidents, and insights discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.
From medieval law and literature to Tudor queens and courtiers, from Stuart royals and rebels to Regency soldiers and social calls, experience the panorama of Britain’s yesteryear. Explore the history behind the fiction, and discover the true tales surrounding Britain’s castles, customs, and kings.
(Currently available in print only from AMAZON )
  
To celebrate the release, I am joining in the fun of a blog hop with my fellow authors where we looks at a particularly quirky custom or tradition.
My contribution is a peek into the often violent 17th century (or not!) origins of some of our best known nursery rhymes
At the most basic level, nursery rhymes are used as a way of familiarising a child with the patterns of their native tongue. Every culture uses variations of these simple rhymes. I can remember rocking my own fractious babies to sleep with “Rock a bye baby” and thinking at the time that the words must have originated from a frustrated mother, not unlike myself, harbouring dark thoughts about her infant… have you ever thought about how violent the words actually are? “When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby, cradle and all…”. So the rhyme served two purposes, calming the baby and satisfying the mother’s urge to commit infanticide at the same time!
Back to the seventeenth century. The origins of many nursery rhymes are lost in history and those for which we do think we know the origin, may turn out to be specious... As you will see.
RING A RING ROSIE:
Ring-a-ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.
The common belief is that this rhyme originated with the Plague of 1665 (or the Black death of the 1300s).  The words were believed to have described the symptoms of the plague - a rash (the ring of roses) and sneezes and of course death (we all fall down).  This interpretation of the rhyme is a comparitively modern one and folklore scholars (now there’s a profession) have dismissed this origin arguing that  1) It did not appear in written form until the mid nineteenth century  2) the description is not accurate for the bubonic plague (although it is for the pneumonic plague) and  3) the plague theory did not appear until the 1950s. Hmm… just because it wasn’t written down until the mid nineteenth century doesn’t mean it didn’t exist in oral tradition for years, if not centuries.
A FROG HE WOULD A WOOING (or courting) GO:
A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go
Whether his mother? let him or no
He rode right to Miss Mousie's den
Said he "Miss Mousie are you within?"
He said "My dear I've come to see"
If you Miss Mousie will marry me"? I was always under the belief that this rhyme/song referred to Charles II and his love of beautiful women, but scholars believe its origin is earlier.  It first appeared in written form in 1611 and it could refer to the reputed marriage of Francis of Anjou to Elizabeth I but versions of it are known from even earlier in the Tudor dynasty. Certainly it is a political satire but which Queen and which Frog are now lost in time.
GEORGIE PORGIE:
Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry,
When the boys came out to play
Georgie Porgie ran away
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
This rhyme is believed to have originated with George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham and boon companion to Charles I.  The beautiful George was known to “bat for both teams” (to use a cricketing metaphor) and was reputedly the lover of both James I and Ann of Austria (the Queen of France). Political furore about his influence over Charles I led to his eventual assasination  and you can read more about the lovely George HERE) However there is no real evidence for this story and it could just as easily refer to Charles II (Rowley Powley Pudding and Pie) or George II, both notorious womanisers. 
DOCTOR FELL:
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why - I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell
This little rhyme is said to have been written by the English poet Thomas Brown around 1680 and refers to one of the dons at Oxford, Doctor John Fell of Christ Church, who expelled the young Brown for mischief. To conclude… one of the best known and most beloved Nursery Rhymes:
HUMPTY DUMPTY:
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again
Like all the rhymes, its origins are reputedly many and varied. “Humpty Dumpty” was a term used in the middle ages to describe someone of large girth and folklore scholars (them again!) have posited the theory it refers to Richard III (who we now know was NOT a man of large girth!). By far the most likely origin comes from the English Civil War. In 1648 the town of Colchester was held for the royalists and besieged. The story goes that the King’s men had a large (and presumably rotund) gun which they placed strategically on the wall of the town. However the wall was not built to withstand the weight of the gun and it collapsed, taking the great gun, nicknamed Humpty Dumpty, with it. Despite the efforts of “all the King’s men and all the King’s horses” the great gun was too heavy to be raised again.
I shall conveniently ignore the earliest written forms of this rhyme which make no mention of “King’s” men or horses or the fact it could refer to a kind of ale mixed with brandy, or an exceptionally clumsy person.
Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle
But reference to a giant siege gun of the English Civil War segues nicely into my contribution to CUSTOMS, CASTLES AND KINGS - the sad tale of Brilliana Harley and her spirited defence of Brampton Bryan Castle in Herefordshire. Brilliana and the many stalwart women of the English Civil War, was the inspiration behind my own story HER REBEL HEART. 
PLEASE VISIT MY FELLOW CONTRIBUTORS FOR THEIR QUIRKY TAKES ON HISTORY
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#Fall into Reading - Blog Hop:  Guest Margaret Madigan

9/28/2015

 
I am very excited to be a part of a Historical Romance Blog Hop this weekend, hosted by the lovely girls at BOOKS 'N PEARLS.  OVER THE WEEKEND THERE WILL BE DOZENS OF FABULOUS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AUTHORS TO MEET AND PRIZES TO BE WON. To hop over to the next blog click the Link at the end of this blog. I grew up on 'Westerns' so I am delighted to be hosting MARGARET MADIGAN, whose latest book GAMBLING ON THE OUTLAW came out in June this year. 
ABOUT GAMBLING ON THE OUTLAW   
Beth Caldwell is no man's property. A gambler's widow with a willful, independent streak, she's already courting trouble after rejecting an offer of marriage from a foul-tempered and land-hungry cattle baron. But when Beth discovers a handsome outlaw hiding in her barn, she lands in a whole new heap of trouble... Isaac Collins survived the Civil War only to find himself scapegoated for stagecoach robbery and murder. With nothing left to lose, he gambled everything on revenge and barely escaped with his life. Now he's relying on the kindness of a fierce, strong-willed woman...and God help him if there isn't something both sweet and forbidden simmering between them. But Beth's rejected suitor is no gentleman. He'll do whatever it takes to get her land. And in Nevada, sometimes everything can ride on one a high-stakes game of chance.
Read an Excerpt from GAMBLING ON THE OUTLAW
I squared my shoulders and entered the room, determined to behave myself properly.
            He was sat up in bed with several pillows piled behind him for support, looking every bit as if he belonged there, enough so that last night came to mind and I was tempted to crawl in and snuggle up next to him. But I gave myself a mental shake. He was quickly turning me into a silly schoolgirl. I am a strong, independent woman.
I had other women depending on me and I couldn’t let some male drifter, a wanted man no less, distract me from my responsibilities.
I placed the tray on his lap and backed away as quickly as possible, taking a seat in the rocker I’d spent so much time in the last few days.
            “It seems your presence is causing quite a stir around here. My friends don’t quite know how to react to you.
            “What about you?”
            “What about me?”
            “You said none of your lady friends knows how to react to me. What about you? Do you know how to react to me?”
The taste of his lips on mine leaped to mind unbidden, along with the feel of his hands on me, and that’s all it took for my double-crossing heart, and my equally rebellious body, to react with lusty desire. I’d assumed I’d never again be lucky enough to find a man who made me feel that way, and yet here he was, already in my bed.
Although I wanted very much to shift from the rocker to the edge of the bed and assist him with his breakfast, perhaps feeding him bits of bread with creamy butter that he’d have to lick from my fingertips, I opted for maintaining at least a modicum of decency and kept my rear end rooted to the chair. I suspected where Mr. Isaac Collins was concerned, me and my good sense were in a heap of trouble, because my body had clearly declared war against us.
            “Just how would you expect me to react?”
            He’d been watching me, waiting for my answer, those warm brown eyes regarding me from under a fringe of dark lashes, making my belly flutter like a flock of hummingbirds had nested inside.
            “A smart woman would be on her guard. She’d be concerned and maybe even afraid, and she’d send me on my way, happy to see the back of me. And I took you for a smart woman.”
Buy GAMBLING ON THE OUTLAW from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Entangled, Kobo and where all good Ebooks are sold.  
ABOUT MARGARET MADIGAN
Margaret is an author of romance and science fiction with Entangled Publishing and Evernight Publishing. She is a hard core Oregon Ducks fan. and a donut and pastry addict. Best of all... she likes cats! When she's  not writing you’ll find her  in a college classroom teaching English, or working as a literary agent for an amazing agency…and of course, wrangling her family.
Connect with Margaret:
Facebook author fan page, Twitter, Goodreads, Website
Blog,Pinterest, Amazon fan page
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THE KING'S MAN LAUNCH CONTEST

9/27/2015

 
To celebrate the launch of THE KING'S MAN, Alison is running a Rafflecopter Contest to win a Kindle E-reader...
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    Alison Stuart

    Alison writes historical romances and short stories set in England and Australia and across different periods of history.
    ​She also writes historical mysteries as A.M. Stuart.

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