Dark, Disturbing and Somewhat Horrible, the History and Origins of Nursery Rhymes #3: 🌺 Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary 🌺

Dark, Disturbing and Somewhat Horrible, the History and Origins of Nursery Rhymes #3: Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

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Week 3 of Dark, Disturbing and Somewhat Horrible, the History and Origins of Nursery Rhymes looks at maybe a not so well-known nursery rhyme, ”Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”.

Once again, the star of the show is Queen Mary I (1516–1558), daughter of Henry VIII, also known as “Bloody Mary” and for good reason. We first met her in Week 1, Three Blind Mice.

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

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Now, there are several different explanations as to who or what the rhyme refers to. Some scholars say that it refers to the Virgin Mary and it’s a Catholicism poem. Others that Mary, is Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–1587) and the rhyme refers to her husband’s infidelity. But for our purpose we’ll stick with Queen Mary I.

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Let’s look at each line and the dark meaning behind it:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

• Queen Mary I, was known for being contrary or in other words she would do the opposite of what was expected or desired for her to do.

How does your garden grow?

• The “garden” refers to a graveyard and the ever-increasing tombstones of those who dared to go against the Queen and continue to practice the Protestant faith.

With silver bells, and cockle shells,

• Silver bells and cockle shells are colloquialisms for instruments of torture.
• The 'silver bells' were thumbscrews and the 'cockleshells' were attached to the… um… male genitals!

And pretty maids all in a row.

• Now here they’re either referring to those poor souls lining up to be beheaded, the “Iron Maiden” which was a torture device or the “Scottish Maiden” which was a device to behead people similar to the guillotine.

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OK, so now you can see why this rhyme that typically depicts a dear, sweet girl tending to her garden, may not be as innocent as all that. And I’m sure that when you’re in your garden tending to your flowers or vegetables, you’ll think of this rhyme from time-to-time. I know I will!

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Tidbit: Beheading was fraught with problems and often the executioner had to swing his axe many times to actually severe the head, and in the instance of poor Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1473 - 1541), she had to be chased around the scaffolding and hacked at by the Executioner.

It was this inefficiency which lead to the invention of the “Scottish Maiden”, the first device to cleanly cut off the head with one blow. The original guillotine.

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Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this week’s look at a well-known nursery rhyme, well perhaps “enjoyed” isn’t the right word… I hope you found this interesting and I’m looking forward to sharing more next week 😊

Link to last week: London Bridge

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Original content by @redwellies

Reference: The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes & rhymes.org.uk

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