THE NURSERY RHYME: A SHARP AND CUTTING WEAPON OF POLITICAL DISSIDENT
		By Wakeley Paul Come on in, The waters fine. I'll give you Till I count nine, If you're are not In by then, Guess I'll have to Count to ten. With this ancient rhyme, I invite you to read this article with a different twist. I hope you will find it to be both unique and fascinating. Before launching into my main theme, I use two short  rhymes to show how effectively they can be used to express opposite concepts with the use of the same words, slightly altered Early to bed, Early to rise, Will make you healthy, wealthy and wise James Thurber, the modern humorist, altered these words of wisdom by an old stage to reflect how this should read in this day and age, with its long working hours, intense ambitions to fulfill  and its accompanying  stress Early to rise and early too bed Will make you healthy, wealthy and dead The Tamil community is at the present time awash with dissidents in EELAM, in Sri Lanka and everywhere abroad. Press censorship in Sri Lanka knows no bounds. The banning of the L T T E as a 'terrorist organization' by the Sri Lankan government;  and other governments at the behest of the Sri Lankan government;  was designed to discourage support for a Federal or Separate state, for which this party stands and fights. This makes communication between supportive dissidents vital to our cause. It is with this in mind, that I revert to the long  period in English history, where dissidents used the innocuous sounding nursery rhyme to transmit forbidden messages, sneering and making fun of the unpopular and objectionable antics of their royal rulers. The Nursery Rhymes of England were long standing English  creations, written at times when their was considerable peasant dissatisfaction with Royal Rule. These sometimes soothing, sometimes perky little rhymes had a far deeper meaning than their catching verses suggest. Those of us who were reared in the English language, were soothed to sleep or entertained in school with these delightful ditties, without the slightest idea of their deeper insidious significance. Today's dissidents and opposers of government tyranny could learn well from these elegant ways of  scorning our rulers without being subject to the scissors of the censor Let me commence with this galloping chime Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross, To see a white lady upon a white horse, Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music wherever she goes This dancing melody depicts the story of the Queen of England who went to Banbury to see a stone cross that had just been erected atop a steep hill. On her arrival, a decorated rocking horse was attached to her coach by the people, ostensibly to help her horses to pull the coach up the hill to reach the cross. This was a sneering dig at her pomp and her power . With all of her horses and her beautiful coach, she needed a child's rocking horse [ cockhorse] to make the approach. It did not stop there. The story went that a wheel of the carriage broke, so she abandoned her coach and abandoned her horses and had to ride up on the hill on the cockhorse alone.  [Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross]   This  was like a modern day biting  cartoon pooh pooping the pomp, the ceremony and pageantry of the Queen. [Rings  on her fingers and bells on her toes; and she shall music wherever she goes] Yet, she had to use a child's plaything to ride up the hill, to see a cross made by the people. It depicted her pomp and pageantry  as a mere facade, used to prop her up. The Royal censors would not be able to discover the originator of the rhyme to punish him for his audacity. It was unacceptable to mock the Queen and her power with such lack of respect.  If they did find the culprit, the punishment was as bad as that inflicted by successive Sri Lankan governments on our own Tamil dissidents, for their scathing contempt and condemnation  of our Sinhala rulers There is another version that attributes the origin to Lady Godiva, who accepted her husband's [ Earl Leofric of Marcia's]  wager, that she would ride through the streets of Coventry without any clothes, if he would remove a punitive tax he had imposed. She rode a white horse, decked in only in trinkets on her fingers and toes. The people put up their shutters while she rode through the streets to fight their cause . A fine story of a noble lady who resisted the unfair imposition of taxes  by her very own nobility. Ride the cockhorse to Banbury Cross,  probably symbolized their refusal to humiliate her by viewing this spectacle. They could not get to Banbury Cross on a cockhorse to witness her humiliation. And she will have music wherever she goes reflected the people singing their praises for ever thereafter to honor her unselfish act in such a noble cause How could the censor suspect their true intent. The next rhyme by contrast, is a plaintive cry, which goes: Bye Baby Bunting, Daddy's gone a hunting, Gone to get a rabbit skin, To wrap his bay bunting in Oh, what a grieving song of discontent. What the poor have to suffer to provide the basic necessities for their loved ones, is a fate to cry over.  Go hunting for clothing while leaving the poor little baby bunting behind.  It is a sad, haunting plea to the people to make them realize the misfortune of their fate and plight. They were obviously dealing with a complacent population who has to be whipped up to take action to free themselves from what they believed was their preordained destiny.  Tamil activists are more than familiar with this malaise. This idea of a pre- ordained destiny is even more deeply rooted in societies like ours, where the power of the horoscope is all consuming.  It is hard to shake people out of their complacency when they believe that their destiny is shaped by the stars  rather than by their efforts. There are many who combine the influence of the stars with a desire to accomplish the seemingly impossible, but usually,   they are the activists, not the objects of the activist's exhilarating exhortations.  Despite this apparent obstacle, the efforts of the activists have not gone unheeded. The people have shaken off their previous destiny in search of new horizons. We next have the funny, jolly rhyme that laughed at King Edward I of England who was made to look like a fool on one of his pompous regal trips to parts of his kingdom Dr Foster went to Gloucester In a shower of rain, He stepped in a puddle Right up to his middle And never went back again King Edward I traveled to Gloucester in the middle of a rain storm. When he got there. his horse fell; and the king and the horse wound up in s puddle of mud. It was a pathetic and humiliating sight for  King to be in. The townsfolk had to use planks of wood to rescue the king and his horse from the utterly undignified situation he found himself in.  It certainly was not a fate befitting a King. The King ranted and raved and swore he would never return to Gloucester again.  The writer could not resist  spreading the news of the Kings misfortune and awkward predicament all around. The King could do little to refute the truth, while the people celebrated his fall by singing this verse wherever and whenever they could. I follow this with the verse which beckons Marjorie Daw to listen to what they have to say about her husband Jackie. It opens with a swaying  seductive plea of  a horn, addressing her,  and then spits out a sharp but realistic revelation  with the precision, speed and  rhythm of a military band. The sweet lilting start in contrast to the harsh but true message, delivered with the swiftness of a military drum beat, adds pungency to its significance. The drum beat was like a heart thumping anxiously as it listened to this crippling news See Saw, Marjorie Daw, Jackie shall have a new master, Jackie shall have but a penny a day, Because Jackie can't work any faster This  portrays the plight of the average fellow, the simple ordinary working man.  It does not matter,  who his master is, for whoever he is, what ever he's like, Jackie will always be the same helpless little pawn, quite unable to better himself  His choice is no choice.  Where ever he turned, he would always be spurned, and always returned, to the place he once spurned. His was a cramped destiny, to stay still, with no where to go, no hope or expectations of anything better to look forward to in the future. By implication, this rhyme is intended as a clarion call to stir him to swim out of  these still waters and into the open ocean with fresh horizons. Heresy , Heresy, like those of us who proclaim separation or meaningful Federalism as an answer to the Sri Lankan government's insistence on brow beating  us and keeping us in our place,  never to rise; never to rule; and always be ruled by them  through an their highly prized gift of an Unitary Constitution The next rhyme is announced with the ringing of bells and changes immediately into a pulsing drum beat. Ding  Dong Bell Pussy's in the Well. Who put her in Little Johnny Green, Who pulled her out, What a naughty boy was that Little Tommy Stout To try to drown a little pussy cat Who never did him any harm and killed the mice in his father's farm An ingenious though much d[isputed explanation is that this tells the tale of the forgotten farmer, who feeds his master with the foods he grows, but is treated and disregarded as  if he did not exist. He was there because he had to be. Even though he is needed for the masters sustenance, he is viewed as something  distant and unimportant. This is the message being broadcast to those poor feudal waifs and wretches who were born to serve their noble masters, implying that they should assert themselves to change their fate, as their masters could not survive without them This was not just a verse about a thoughtless and cruel little boy. It had a deeper message, urging the serf to recognize his potential and importance in life and not tolerate being tossed around like the helpless little pussy cat who killed the mice on his masters farm. The next happy sing sing verse is loaded with messages and warnings that are terse. Sing a song of six pence, A pocket full of Rye, Four and Twenty black birds, Baked in a pie When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing, Isn't that a dainty dish To set before the King The King was in his counting house, Counting out his money The Queen was in the parlor, Eating bread and honey; The maid was in the garden, Hanging out the clothes When down came a blackbird And pecked off her nose A clever, but once again questioned version as to its origin is that Sing a song of six pence highlights the contrasting plight of the poor hardworking slob  with that of  their masters [ Royalty and the nobility in feudal times]. Six pence and a pocket full of rye contrasted with four and twenty black birds baked in a pie. There is the King in his counting house counting out his money, the Queen in her parlor,  eating bread and honey, while the unfortunate maid is outside in the garden, slaving away, only to be attacked   by a cruel black bird, who pecks off her nose. The bird  represents her superiors descending from their perch on high,  All she can expect for her efforts is blame and criticism. What kind of a fate is that, the verse queries. Certainly not one to be accepted in silence.  So you have the birds that began to sing when the pie was open. This was the subtle warning that the suppressed would rise and have their voices heard and their freedoms achieved; a warning to an unsuspecting king,  who is delighted rather than fore warned by this pleasing but insidious omen There is a dull  but inexplicable more accepted version that says that this refers to a time when live birds were put under the pie crust at the banquets of the privileged; and added that the pocket full of rye may have been an unit of measurement.  This does not account for the significance of much of the rest of the verse, nor does it express surprise and innovation, if it was the custom of the privileged to have live birds under the pie crust. Little Jack Horner Sat in a corner, Eating his Christmas pie He put in his thumb And pulled out a plumb, And said what a good boy am I This was a cutting satire on the power and influence of  dishonesty in the Royal Kingdom. The Bishop of Glastonbury  heard that King Henry Xiii was after the Glastonbury holdings. The Bishop , hurriedly sent his steward Jack Horner with a Christmas pie filled with twelve deeds to other manorial , to appease the King and save his lands. Not to be outdone, Jack Horner, while on the way, pulled out and retained the deed to the plum of these lands, The Manor of Mells and kept it for himself. [put in his thumb and pulled out a plum] This irony of the dishonest feeding on the dishonest and pretending to be saintly thereafter, [and said what a good boy am I], has a sharp and telling edge to it. The saddest irony however, is  that the Horner family owns and profits from this estate today, not something the authors anticipated. Ring a Ring a Roses A pocket full of posies, Agh Tissue, Agh Tissue Ashes, Ashes [American alternative] And we all fall down. was a stark warning to the public of the onset of the plague. The plague was associated with vile and pungent smells, so they recommended a pocket full of roses to ward off this evil or else they would sneeze and sneeze and all succumb to the disease. Ashes, Ashes signified the consequence of contacting the plague.So the nursery rhyme was also used to broadcast  news of impending disasters. Rock a bye Baby, On the tree top, When the wind blows, The cradle will rock, When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall Down will come baby and cradle and all This is hardly a soothing theme to lull a baby to sleep with. Here the message passed along was, "All is quiet on the western front", but this is the calm before the storm, and when the storm blows, the whole soothed and contented royal regime will collapse. The King, the son of James II,  is the spoiled and soothed baby in the cradle, resting peacefully till the storm hits, the storm being the revolt of the people. Not a thought to be tolerated by the Kings supporters. It had to be spread through the innocuous means of the Nursery Rhyme. Talk of the Sinhalese losing power over us through federalism or separation is anathema to them. The very mention of these concepts is like heresy to their ears. They refuse to envisage such a fall from grace; for theirs is the Kingdom; and so it will remain. The Tamils will wait and wait for the fall,  with the hope and the patience that governs them all. The time will come when the peace process breaks, and down will come government and  President and all. The subtlety of the warning in this rhyme is a masterpiece of deception. An American version is that this was written by an original pilgrim who saw the Wampanago Indian women hang the decorated cradles of their babies on the branches of trees while they worked on the corn and maize fields. This had no message and sounds like an American innovation and heartless distortion off its true origin. made up asfter the nursery rhyme was well known. Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head . This  seems somewhat self evident. Be warned, they come with flowers concealing daggers. Do not be duped by sweet offerings and promises, they are designed to do you in. One wonders whether the Kings retinue would not have seen through this in a flash, but this was disguised with what went before, which was Oranges and Lemons Say the Bells of St.Clement's You owe me five farthings, Say the Bells of St Martins. When will you pay me Say the Bells of Old Bailey When I grow rich, Say the Bells of Shoreditch When will that be Say the Bells of Stepney I'm sure I don't know, Says the great bell at Bow They will come to get  you for the taxes you owe, they will come with a candle to say its all legal,  and be ready to kill you when you owe them yet more. The Old Bailey and the Court at Bow Street are the King's higher and lower courts of criminal law, through which punishments are imposed. Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have you any wool ? Yes, Sir, Yes Sir, Three bags full, One for my master One for my dame, And one for the little boy, Who lives down the lane This was a sad lament on the inequity of the tax system in  the middle ages. The poor hard working peasant farmer, was left with only one third of his earnings after taxes. A third went to his master [The King] ,  a Third  to the Dame [ the nobility that owned the land] and just third was left for the little boy [ the peasant],  who lives down the lane What an ingenious  way of spreading the news of their exploitation and singing it aloud while avoiding the harsh hand of the Royal censors, who probably also sang along with them, without a thought as to the message being spread.  It adds to the irony and power of the Nursery Rhyme as a way of firing up the wrath of the community against the unacceptable status quo  without the authorities realizing it. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, All the Kings horses and all the Kings men, Couldn't put Humpty together again. which symbolizes the final dream. Humpty Dumpty was a common nickname for a fat slob in the 1400's The fat, obese King,  is compared to the fragile egg, which, when cracked, like virginity, is lost for ever. The analogy is vivid, with the equally vivid follow up. Once he falls, not all the Kings infantry or all the King's cavalry could ever resurrect him again. This jaunty little nursery rhyme told the story of the Kings unfortunate but much celebrated destiny.  As a nursery rhyme it was sung with delight by the populace while the censors probably listened serenely, not knowing that it celebrated their extinction. This is supposed to refer to King Charles I, who was toppled by a majority of the members of parliament and was ultimately executed. The people prevailed over the King, even though the average man did not have the right to vote at that time. It yet celebrated the the diminution of the power of the Royal proclamation.. The "Puritans" had out voted him the King  Parliament and finally ousted him from power. Another well accepted version is that "Humpty Dumpty" represented a powerful cannon the Royalists used to defend Colchester during the civil war between the  Royalists and parliamentarians, in 1642-49 , The Royalists had captured and controlled the parliamentary stronghold of Colchester for 11 weeks The cannon was mounted atop the tower of St Mary's church in Colchester.. The parliamentarians succeeded in blowing the top of the tower off and the cannon came tumbling down. Neither the King's cavalry or the Kings infantry could put the cannon  back together again. It symbolized the victory of the people's representatives over the King.  Even though the average man did not have the vote at that time, it symbolized popular rule over Royal decree. There are many more, too many for an article of this length. I could add a second follow up chapter if the readers are interested. "Georgie Porgy,  pudding and pie"  Jack & Jill"  "The Old woman in a shoe" "Jack Sprat" to name a few, all full of cutting political innuendo. I end this article with a buoyant, cheery happy song which calls the world out to play and enjoy themselves with whatever meager resources they have. This in contrast to the others gives a happy twist to life, the kind of uplift our fighting  forces and their stoic supporters in the Vanni so badly need,  in these harshest of times. It tells them you can make do with what you have to enjoy yourselves; and nothing should deter you. Boys and girls come out to play, The moon  doth shine as bright as day. Leave your supper and leave your sleep, And join your playfellows in the street. Come with a whoop and come with a call, Come with a good will or not at all. Up the ladder and down the wall, A half penny loaf will serve us all; You find milk and I'll find flour, And we'll having pudding in half an hour. How much more joyous can one get ?  Especially in times of stress,  people need to relax their flesh,  and dance and sing and have a good time, for life is not just a tale of woe. It is a time to celebrate, with what ever is there, to enjoy it with. One version says this celebrates the time when children were treated as adults and could be out at night even after the moon rose. I am not urging today's dissidents to be copy cats and use the same modem for making inspiring communications or sending happy tidings of joy.  It would be a civilized and powerful weapon for dissidents to use a refined alternative to this classic English medium to transmit biting criticisms of government policy, or messages of hope or concern to others, without indulging in the kind of crude discourse that now dominates the Sri Lankan Parliament. May the Tamils proclaim their discontent in an ancient language capable of the refined expression of the type and style we have witnessed above In conclusion, I will leave you with a riddle and ask you to figure out what this puzzling nursery rhyme that meant Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon * There are other versions of origins not included here for reasons of economy.