Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary"
Roud #19626

Mistress Mary, according to William Wallace Denslow
Song
Written England
Published c. 1744
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer(s) Traditional
Language English
William Wallace Denslow's rendition of the poem, 1901

"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" is a popular English nursery rhyme. The rhyme has been seen as having religious and historical significance, but its origins and meaning are disputed. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19626.

Lyrics

The most common modern version is:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.[1]

  1. ^ Opie, Peter; Opie, Iona Archibald (1997) [1952]. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 301. ISBN 0-19-860088-7. OCLC 229161681. 
The oldest known version was first published in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744) with the following lyrics:

Mistress Mary, Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With Silver Bells, And Cockle Shells,
And so my garden grows.[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Opie1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Several printed versions of the eighteenth century have the lyrics:

Mistress Mary, Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With Silver Bells, And Cockle Shells,
Sing cuckolds all in a row.[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Opie1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

The last line has the most variation including:

Cowslips all in arow [sic].[1]

and

With lady bells all in a row.[1]

Explanations

Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired various historical explanations. These include:

  • That it is a religious allegory of Catholicism, with bells representing the sanctus bells, the cockleshells the badges of the pilgrims to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and pretty maids are nuns, but even within this strand of thought there are differences of opinion as to whether it is lament for the reinstatement of Catholicism or for its persecution.[1]
  • Another theory sees the rhyme as connected to Mary, Queen of Scots, with "how does your garden grow" referring to her reign over her realm, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockle shells" insinuating that her husband was not faithful to her, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to her ladies-in-waiting – "The four Maries".[1] In Disney's The Truth About Mother Goose the "silver bells" are said to "refer to the elaborate decoration on her dresses", the "cockle shells" to her love of exotic food such as cockles, with the "pretty maids all in a row" referring to her ladies-in-waiting.[2]
  • Mary has also been identified with Mary I of England with "How does your garden grow?" said to refer to her lack of heirs, or to the common idea that England had become a Catholic vassal or "branch" of Spain and the Habsburgs. It is also said to be a punning reference to her chief minister, Stephen Gardiner. "Quite contrary" is said to be a reference to her unsuccessful attempt to reverse ecclesiastical changes effected by her father Henry VIII and her brother Edward VI. The "pretty maids all in a row" is speculated to be a reference to miscarriages or her execution of Lady Jane Grey. "Rows and rows" is said to refer to her executions of Protestants.[3]

The Opies argued that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots, were contemporaries in the sixteenth century.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5
  2. ↑ The Truth About Mother Goose Disney (1957)
  3. ↑ Roberts, C (2004), Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: the Reason Behind the Rhyme, Granta, pp. 33–4.

References

--Heidi Ashley

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