Three Blind Mice
As with most nursery rhymes, Three Blind Mice has a whack of history behind it. So what's behind the words? And who composed it? Let's dig a bit deeper.
The modern words, as many of us know, are:
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?
Quite nasty, if you think about it. Perhaps it's worth looking at what these sinister words could mean.
Three Blind Mice published in London, 12 October 1609
It was published in a thing called Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie. The likely author of the rhyme was one Thomas Ravenscroft. These are the original lyrics:
Three Blinde Mice,
Three Blinde Mice,
Dame Iulian,
Dame Iulian,
the Miller and his merry olde Wife,
she scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.
There you have it. I don't quite see how that lines up with the usual story that the three blind mice were three Protestant loyalists who were accused of plotting against Catholic Queen Mary I of England, AKA, the farmer’s wife. Rather than blinded, the three men were burned at the stake. And said Mary died in 1558, well before the 1609 publication date.
I don't actually get it. These words are just weird. Scraping her tripe and licking the knife! At least it appears that no mice were harmed in the making.
And who was Dame Iulian? The only reference makes her seem like a nice old dame. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well,” was her answer what would happen to those who had never heard of Jesus. Instead of eternal damnation which was the standard at the time.
But nice as she might have been, what the hell has she got to do with mice and tripe?
In 1842 it became a nursery rhyme when it was published in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell.
It became a nonsense piece somewhere in the 20th century when someone came up with:
A trio of sightless rodents.
A trio of sightless rodents.
Observe how they perambulate.
Observe how they perambulate.
They all circumnavigate the agriculturalist's spouse,
She extracted their tails with a carving utensil,
Have you ever observed such a sight in your existence,
As a trio of sightless rodents?
What about the music?
Three Blind Mice is not just words. It's a piece of music. It's an "absurd old round" as someone once said. So it's only right that we end this with the music.
In the late '80's, the Candian band Rush used to play an amazing intro to their show based on... you guessed it, Three Blind Mice. Enjoy:
Also posted on Weku, @tim-beck, 2018-10-12