Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 433.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
www.princeton.edu/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 09:28:56 +0000
From: "Dr. Donald J. Weinshank" <weinshan@cse.msu.edu>
Subject: "Baa baa black sheep"
Willard:
For no particular reason, I began to wonder about the old nursery rhyme,
http://www.kididdles.com/mouseum/b001.html
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Nursery Rhyme
Written By: Unknown
Copyright Unknown
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
Assuming that all such nursery rhymes have some historical origin, I did a
fairly extensive GOOGLE search and turned up only one even plausible
explanation.
http://allsands.com/History/Objects/historynursery_nu_gn.htm
"As you can see, almost every nursery rhyme has a story behind it. Humpty
Dumpty was actually King Richard III, and the famous farmer's wife from the
Three Blind Mice was supposedly Queen Mary I. Baa Baa Black Sheep was about
taxation, and The Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe was referring to the British
Empire trying to control its colonies."
However, the writer does not give any citations which support these
interpretations.
The curious thing is that "black sheep of the family" is a well known
expression with a highly negative denotation.
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/66250.html
Meaning
A worthless or disgraced member of the family.
Origin
Shepherds used to dislike black sheep as their fleeces were worth
less than those of white sheep. Warning: old joke ahead. 'Why do black sheep
eat less than white ones?'. 'There aren't as many of them.'
This only compounds the mystery. I have the hunch that "black sheep" refers
to some historical scoundrel and that the "master," the "dame" and the
"little boy" were three figures who were being "paid off" by the scoundrel.
NOTE: The forgoing is purely uninformed speculation.
I do not have ready access to THE ANNOTATED MOTHER GOOSE
(http://www.parent-to-be.com/Annotated_Mother_Goose_0517029596.html) and
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517029596/002-4540340-7353617
?v=glance. I did a quick search of Bettleheim's, THE USES OF ENCHANTMENT,
but turned up nothing.
Perhaps I should, in the felicitous words of my students, "get a life," but
curiosity is getting the better of me. (NOTE: It also killed the cat.
http://www.goenglish.com/CuriosityKilledTheCat.asp_)
djw
_________________________________________________
Dr. Don Weinshank Professor Emeritus Comp. Sci. & Eng.
1520 Sherwood Ave., East Lansing MI 48823-1885
Ph. 517.337.1545 FAX 517.337.2539
http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weinshan
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