Day 42

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

As we move through this time of isolation, I was thinking about the nursery rhyme "Ring around the rosie". That's the version I remember. There's a lot more to it than that. One more excursion into Wikipedia finds that there are many versions of where it comes from. The one I thought I knew is associated with the Black Death in 1665. But there is so much more. Here is the link to the other explanations.

          The Great Plague explanation of the mid-20th century

Since after the Second World War, the rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England. Interpreters of the rhyme before World War II make no mention of this; by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom. Peter and Iona Opie, the leading authorities on nursery rhymes, remarked:

The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and "all fall down" was exactly what happened.

The line Ashes, Ashes in colonial versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims' houses, or blackening of their skin, and the theory has been adapted to be applied to other versions of the rhyme. In its various forms, the interpretation has entered into popular culture and has been used elsewhere to make oblique reference to the plague.

On a cheerier note, our weekly trip into Annapolis Royal on Saturday will now include some sunflower hearth baked bread from Oakhaven Bakery, a local baker. While the photo may not be the sunflower bread, it will be delicious.

Oh yes, Remember the Muumuu!

Onwards!