Gary J Sibio
“Ring Around the Rosie” by Maurice Prendergast
The nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie”, also known as “Ring a Ring O’ Roses,” first appeared in print in 1881 (Mother Goose; or, the Old Nursery Rhymes) but was known to be sung to the identical tune as early as 1790. Here are the British lyrics:
Ring-a-ring o’ roses, (Alternatively, “Ring-a-round the rosie,” in the American version)
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo! (Alternatively, “Ashes, ashes” in the American version)
We all fall down.
The tune was usually sung by a group of children holding hands and moving around in a circle. It ended with the children falling down so it is usually done on a grassy area.
The tune’s background may be a bit more morbid.
Many people believe that the rhyme is referring to the Bubonic Plague which killed off about one-third of Europe in the mid-14th century but most folklorists dismiss this idea. I first heard this account from a British tour guide while visiting London. However, another major plague outbreak hit England in 1665 and that could also be the subject of the rhyme.
The ring of roses was the first symptom of the plague. Red rings appeared on the skin. The posies referred to the flower-like smell sufferers had. Next the victims went through a period of sneezing (“A-tishoo! A-tishoo!” or “Ashes, ashes”) followed by death (“We all fall down.”). Some interpreters link the ashes line with the cremation of the bodies of the dead but why would that appear in the American version and not the British? The British version sounds like a sneeze which would make sense.
The problem with the plague interpretation is that it is not found prior to the Second World War. Also, the symptoms do not accurately match up with the song. So the tune’s origin still remains a mystery.
The rhyme is also not limited to English-speaking countries either. There is a similar rhyme in German which dates back to the late 18th century.
Text © 2018 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
I never knew this and interesting that it is also in German. Thanks for the knowledge.
I wasn’t aware of the German version either until I started looking into it. A lot of English Catholics fled to France and Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries to avoid religious persecution. I wonder if they brought it with them.
I remember this nursery rhyme and yes, there was sneezing in the version I sang as a child. It is interesting to hear different interpretations of this rhyme.
Regional differences in nursery rhymes used to be very common but TV is changing that.
Thank you for sharing this story about the game that I remember playing as a child back in the former Canal Zone in Panama.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
It is nice to know where the stories came from.
Gary, we sang that song on the playground when I was little, but there were no ashes and there was no sneezing. We started by holding hands in a circle moving clockwise, that is to the left, then reached into our pockets to gather the fabric of our skirts to lift them slightly in time for the third verse which was “Curtsey Right” and we did one actual curtsey to the right, and then sang “Curtsey Left” and did the second curtsey to the left, and then when we sang “and we all fall down” we did what is called a deep curtsey toward the center of the circle. We didn’t actually touch the ground.
As interesting as the plague story is, in fact it seems to be that the sneezing and ashes were a recent invention. As a child I was told, and this was a story passed down from one mother to another going back very far in our oral history, that the meaning of the poem was nothing more than to teach us the correct ways to curtsey which being English was part of our heritage. Did you see the news coverage of Meagan Markle being required to curtsey to various people at her wedding? I wonder which, if any version of Ring Around the Rosie the future Duchess of Sussex sang when she attended kindergarten in Hollywood!
Interesting. Yours seems to be another variation on the rhyme. Where was it that you grew up if you don’t mind me asking?
Rural Illinois, Gary, way out in the country.