"Man is born free and is everywhere in chains"

Rival protagonists  in war resent and decry the propaganda of their
opponents. Each claims that the other's positions represent a convenient
figment of their imaginations  or flagrant distortions of the truth. In a
civil war, the dissidents in this contest of will are at a distinct
disadvantage. Their well argued positions are either distorted and belittled
by a government controlled press;  or are subject to being flattened by the
angry fist of the official censor. Finally there is the most dreaded
consequence of all, namely  the power of punishment.

It was in order to avoid these official sanctions that many nursery rhymes, 
belittling their Royal rulers, were composed and broadcast. By their very
simplicity, they defied suppression, by the instrument of the rhyme, they
broadcast it without censure. Who could possibly suspect mothers lulling
their babies to sleep or children playfully singing  nursery rhymes, of
spreading sedition.

Georgie Porgie,  pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the boys came out to play
Georgia, Porgie ran away.

Who was portrayed this as chubby, awkward , cowardly child, who kissed the
girls while the boys were away, but could not face them when he went astray.
There are two amoral villains who this rhyme was supposed to refer to. One
was the Prince  Regent, who later became King George IV of England.[
1762-1830].  As the Prince Regent, he was known as Prinny, for his numerous amorous and amoral indulgences. The children sang this rhyme in their little high pitched voices, while their parents listened with glee,  to hear their prince so playfully insulted. The idea was to make him cringe as they
portrayed him in this rhyme.; as a fat, sassy little boy who stole kisses
from  little girls but could not face the boys who would probably have
beaten him up and sneered at him for his cowardice. A demeaning portrayal of
a regal prince.

It was also supposed to refer to the second Duke of Buckingham [1628-1687] who had a similar reputation. He was removed from Charles II's favor at the request of Parliament on account of his scandalous intrigues. .

Jack and Jill
Went up the hill,
To fetch a pale of water,
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.

This bouncy rhyme has the largest number of origins associated with it.  In
old times there was a unit of measurement called the Gill [ pronounced
Jill].  A king named Jack played around with this unit of measurement so he
could by this illegal maneuver increase his supply of gold. When he was
found out, his kingdom was lost [Jack fell down and broke his crown] and the
gill as a unit of measurement was extinguished. [and gill came tumbling
after] Whether this interpretation was based on a mythical or real king is
not clear but it sent the message that Kings cannot get away with it any
more than their subjects could.

The other more likely, colorful and gripping theory of its origin,  was
that it referred to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France,, during
whose unpopular and ineffective reign the French Revolution erupted.. This
weak, ignorant, vacillating heir to the Throne, married Marie Antoinette in
1870. She played a major roll in his decision making thereafter. In 1874,
they became King & Queen of France.[ Climbed the Hill]. In order to quell
the growing flames of rebellion against the very high taxes on the poor; the
king in a desperate but ineffective bid to pour water on these flames,
remitted some of the taxes hoping to wipe the past away the memory of the
unsavory past. [to fetch a pail of water]. The French Bourgeoisie [ middle
classes] who benefited from the taxes on the poor, objected to the Kings
reforms. This sparked the French Revolution and the King was imprisoned [
Jack fell down]. In 1892, France was declared a Republic, the King was tried
for treason, convicted; sentenced to death; and guillotined in 1793[ [and
broke his crown] The arrogant and disdainful Queen, who when told that the
people had no bread to eat, asked "Why don't eat cake instead"? , was
sentenced to death by a revolutionary council, and guillotined 10 months
after the king was. [and Jill came tumbling after]

The French Revolution sent spasms of concern through the Royal families 
all over Europe. This joyful ditty was sung with gusto as a warning to
British Royalty of the fate that could befall them if they were not
careful.  Revolutionary fever was spreading all over like the present day
ethnic wars, which are on the ascendant...

There are two other origins attributed to this rhyme with its prancing 
rhythm, which are not of any interest to us.

Jack Sprat
Could eat no fat.
His wife could
Eat no lean,
And so, between the two of them,
They licked the platter clean

This lean and hungry verse aptly captured the plight of the people under
the joint rule of Charles I and his greedy wife Henrietta Maria. Parliament
refused to finance his extravagant and unnecessary war with Spain, leaving
him without funds for this pointless but ambitious adventure. He  could eat
no fat as there was no fat to eat. He retaliated for this lack of funds by
dissolving parliament. He and his fat wife [who could eat no lean] passed an
illegal war tax; forced the people to house their troops in their homes; and
ran the country dry while fulfilling  their expensive and selfish ambitions.
[And so between the two of them, they licked the platter clean]. They could
not have expressed it more neatly than this, and how could the King or Queen
suspect that they were the villains of  the crisp, slim, rhyme.

Who was Mary, Mary,  Quite contrary, and why was she regarded so?.
The full verse goes:

Mary Mary Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow ?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row

Mary Queen of Scots was the Catholic Queen who ruled protestant England.
She was an extravagant extrovert, unfaithful in marriage and unpopular. She
was hostile, stubborn and contrary, meaning unfavorable and adverse to her
protestant English parliament and her protestant English subjects. The
silver bells, though a real flower, symbolized her extravagant lifestyle
.Cockle shells were an expensive shell fish which was also used to represent
that extravagance. It could also have referred to her being  a cuckold, 
unfaithful to her husbands, who she killed off with callous regularity,
while  indulging  in her own little personal wars.  The pretty maids are the
ladies in waiting, standing like silent dummies in a row in her palace
garden. Some think the garden referred to Scotland. All in all, it was a
verse showing unconcealed contempt for this foreign ruler and her
extravagance

A more compelling and gruesome version of its origin is the protestant
Englishman's well disguised disgust at being ruled by Mary, not because of
her extravagance but her because of the ruthless measures she took to wipe
out her protestant subjects. It could also have referred to Queen Mary
Tudor, "Bloody Mary", who during her short reign before Elizabeth I, burned
and tortured protestants to endear herself to the Roman Catholic Pope Thus:

Mary, Mary quite contrary
[ The disagreeable catholic tyrant]

How does your garden grow?
[ The garden filled and fertilized with the corpses of the protestant
opposers of her oppressive regime]

With silver bells and cockle shells,
[Instruments of torture such as thumbscrews and iron masks]

And pretty maids all in  a row
[instruments like the guillotine, known as maids to behead enemies]

What a powerful and appropriate method of condemning a foreign ruler who
resorted to torture to advance her religion and suppress the faith of her
subjects  Could we cry " J R , J R, Full of fury, How do your Sinhala
Buddhists grow ? With Tamils heads and legs and arms, all stung out in a
row."

Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run! See how they run!
They all ran after the farmers wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life
As Three blind mice.

This fast moving, racy ditty has the pace and slapstick humor of a silent
movie. It was a back stabbing warning to the corrupt nobility to be aware of
their even more ruthless tyrant, Queen, Mary I of England.. These three
blind [foolish] mice, had the audacity to criticize the Queen [ They all ran
after the farmers wife] [ The Queen's estates included vast farmlands] and she cut off their tales with a carving knife .Their punishment for going against her was to be burned at the stake.  The speed of the verse sharpens the comic irony of the nobility being chased by the queen [acting like a common farmers wife] who nips off tails  with a carving knife.

The last but one of my Nursery Rhymes in this two part series is 'The Old
Woman in a shoe". This was subject to more than one theory as to what its
origin was, since its actual origin was beset with uncertainty.

There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children,
She didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth
Without any bread,
She whipped them all soundly
And put them to bed.

Was this a tale to scare the daylights out of little children with.? Was
this like a Grimm's fairy tale, warning little children what will happen to
them if they are bad ? If not, who was this cheap, cruel,  skinflint of a
woman ?

One theory is that the shoe represented England [not Italy] and the old
woman represented the British Parliament which ruled over her many children
in Britain and the far flung colonies of the British Empire.. How and why
did she starve these children, whip them  and put them to bed ? The
suggestion here is that she did so by appointing the much despised and hated
James I as their King. This was a sharp rebuke to Parliament for appointing
him the King of England and its vast and prosperous empire, over which they
[parliament ]seemed to have lost control.[ She had so many children, she
didn't know what to do] Today's political cartoon would very effectively
express this disdain in these modern times. The British citizens of the time
however, had to disguise their contempt of Parliament and their shocking
choice of a King, in the form of a simple nursery rhyme about a wicked old
woman who didn't know what to do.

Another even funnier  version of its origin, is that the "Old Woman"
referred to either King George II or King George III, either of who began
the fashion of wearing white powdered wigs. One or the other was referred to
with derision as "The old Woman". The members of Parliament were her
children and the Shoe was England. She gave them Broth & Bread. This may
have referred to two Prime Ministers the King chose for them. "And put them
to bed" refers to the order by which the King forced Parliament to hold a
session of parliament against their will.. It has that smacking quality of a
mother [the king] forcing children [parliament] to go to bed. The old woman
[the King] as the mother, controlled the children [parliament] in every
respect. She chose their fathers [the Prime Ministers] and punished them and
put them to bed whenever they displeased her. . It mocked Parliament for
being a mere show piece, controlled, to boot, by an effeminate king.In
modern language, the verse described them as a parliament of pawns ruled by
a sissy monarch. What a cutting commentary on the peoples representatives
who sought to wrest power from the king !

The third theory is both dull and unconvincing. It says the old woman was
Queen Caroline, the wife of George II who had several children. So what? 
Why would that be worth writing a nursery rhyme about ? A confused queen who lived in a palace and starved her children ? It doesn't make sense

Goosey, goosey gander is  a sharp reminder to us Tamils as what what
happened to us during the race-religious riots of 58 and 83. It would have
horrified the drafters of the Fourth Amendment to the United States,
prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, except here the searches
were for people, not property This was about a search for closet Catholics
in the 16th century who refused to conform to the new revised protestant
book of "common of prayer". Here the victims were arrested, not tortured and
burnt alive as they were in Ceylon in 58 & Sri Lanka in 83. This should be a
revolting  reminder to our Sinhalese friends of what their mobs did to us
and the fate we suffered, not just to evoke a "mea culpa", but for them to
realize the  urgent and serious need for constitutional reform

Goosey, Goosey gander,
Whither shall I wonder?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my ladies chamber
There I met an old man
Who wouldn't say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg
And threw him down the stairs.