Violent children's rhymes.

[Mysterian]

Three blind mice. Pretty bad. Cutting the tails off 3 mice with a disability.

Jack and Jill. Lots of bad tumbles and crown breaking, botched first aid, and in the later verses Jill gets beaten for "laughing at Jack's disaster".

Pop goes the weasel. Enough said? Exploding weasels sound awful. Particularly once they've eaten all that treacle and rice.

Oh my darling Clementine. Put me right off the name!

the what shop now?

The pawn shop. To pop something was to pawn it. Man has spent all his money in the Eagle, so now has to pawn his Sunday coat.

Well, there’s a Mumsnet marketing opportunity for the sensitive and nurturing parent. Someone could make a —killing— positive impact in a negative and desensitised world.

I can’t even strike a word properly. That’s how delicate I am.

I've heard that London bridge is falling down is about how they used to bury a live virgin girl in the foundations of bridges for....um....luck. if my fair lady wasn't quite so "fair" the bridge would fall down. If it's true, this surely wins the weird as fuck nursery rhyme trophy.

Georgie porgie was the Prince Regent, later George IV

Goosey Goosey Gander is apparently about hunting catholic priests!

Ladybird Ladybird Fly away home
Your house in on fire, your children all gone

I thought they had gone to safety...a friends house or safe meeting spot. Your telling me now the kids are dead!

budget, apparently one called Anne survived by hiding under the frying pan!

Ding dong bell
Pussy's in the well
Who put her in?
Little Jonny Thin
Who pulled her out?
Little Jonny Stout
What a naughty boy was he
To drown poor pussy cat
Who ne'er did any harm
But kill all the mice
In the farmer's barn

A naughty boy?? Little Jonny Stout needs referral to a child psychologist. TBH, little Johnny Thin may also need some counselling- discovery and retrieval of the cat may well have been traumatic for him.

Well, there’s a Mumsnet marketing opportunity for the sensitive and nurturing parent. Someone could make a —killing— positive impact in a negative and desensitised world.

Well, this made my day.

I thought that goosey goosey gander was about infidelity, not that that’s any better.

Goosey gander is about Catholic priests, wasn't sure. I know the "would not say his prayers" is saying the wrong prayers. (If you watched Gunpowder, being thrown down the stairs was mild...).

I think the Mary Mary is listing various torture instruments , not so pretty.

Yy to George Porgie as the Prince Regent.

When dd1 was little I googled lots of Nursery Rhymes, as I couldn't remember them and found out lots of background instead.

Humpty Dumpty was a cannon. The Grand Old Duke of York was the War of the Roses.

The rhyme about Lizzie Borden makes no attempt to hide its violence.

I have no idea why my mother thought it suitable to say to me.

I’m now watching the history channel documentary on Lizzie Borden.

Humpty Dumpty was a cannon
That’s such a relief.

In the Irish version of Humpty Dumpty the ending is even more explicit
“Cé go raibh sé bán, anois tá sé buí”
Where once he was white, now he is yellow

Apparently Higgledy Piggledy is about a brothel and the narrator is a pimp.

@Aprilshowersarecomingsoon it's about the plague

It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head and couldn't get up in the morning.

Higgledy Piggledy does sound a bit dodgy "she lays eggs for gentleman... gentlemen come every day..."

I had a little nut tree is about Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (King of Spain's daughter).

Dusty Maiden, "pop goes the weasel" is about alcoholics. Treacle and rice are the ingredients for cheap gin, and a later verse says "Up and down the City Road
In and out of the Eagle
That's the way the money goes
Pop goes the weasel"

So, they're spending all their money on alcohol to the point where they have to pawn their clothes. It mentions "monkey on the table" (tankard) "take a stick and knock it off" (down it).

Ding dong dell pussy in the well
Ring a ring a roses
London Bridge is falling down

Everything in Struwwelpeter.

I had my mum's old copy when I was a kid, and adored it, especially the rhyme about the girl who got burned to death .

The last picture was a neat pile of ashes, with her two cats sitting next to it, crying into handkerchiefs.

Remember "Miss Mary Mack" ? The last few lines :
" She went upstairs, stairs, stairs
To go to bed, bed, bed
She bumped her head, head, head
And now she's DEAD !! "
Everyone used to shout that last line with such glee!