CALICO
For generations, parents have sung and clapped along to nursery
rhymes with their young children. In fact, these archaic rhymes have
become such a large part of British culture that we still recite them even
though some of their meanings have become lost in time. After closer
inspection, are these cheery poems really as innocent as they seem?
What does it mean?
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary is a very popular rhyme about a fair maid
and a beautifully decorated garden… or is it?
Actually, this is a fairly gruesome poem about King Henry VIII’s
daughter, Queen Mary I. The silver bells and cockleshells describe her
favourite instruments of torture, and what’s worse, the pretty maids
all in a row are the heads of the protestant women that Mary had
executed for refusing to convert to Catholicism.
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Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
Mary, Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden
grow?
With silver bells and
cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row
Nightmarish Nursery Rhymes
everything is not as it seems...