Originally, Humpty Dumpty was a riddle, so there have been several theories about its meaning. Humpty DumptyĪll the king’s horses and all the king’s men Critics suggest that the blindness in the rhyme is a metaphor for the steadfast religious beliefs of the Oxford Martyrs who refused to renounce their Protestant beliefs for Catholic ones. Queen Mary had them burned alive at stake for their treachery. The farmer’s wife in the story is Queen Mary, while the three blind mice are three Protestant bishops – Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Radley, and Thomas Cranmer – who conspired to overthrow the queen. Queen Mary I was the sociopathic queen of England who burned hundreds of Protestants at stake and earned the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’. Though it might sound like this classic rhyme tells the straightforward tale of an ill-fated trio of mice, it is actually an ode to Bloody Mary’s reign. Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,ĭid you ever see such a thing in your life

Below, we have uncovered the hidden meanings behind five classic nursery rhymes. Have you ever wondered why Humpty Dumpty could not be put together? Or how Jack fell and broke his crown? The answers are more sinister than you could have imagined. While all parents recite and sing nursery rhymes to soothe their children and rock them to a peaceful slumber, not many pay attention to the dark origin stories behind the seemingly innocuous lyrics. Most of us are introduced to poetry in our childhood through lullabies and nursery rhymes.

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