Little Robin Redbreast

‘Little Robin Redbreast’ is an English language nurseryrhyme, chiefly notable as evidence of the way traditionalrhymes are changed and edited. It has a Roud Folk SongIndex number of 20612.

1 Lyrics

An illustration for the rhyme from The Only TrueMother GooseMelodies (1833)

This rhyme is one of the most varied English nurs-ery rhymes, probably because of its crude early version.Common modern versions include:

Little Robin RedbreastCame to visit me;This is what he whistled,Thank you for my tea.[1]

Little Robin RedbreastSat upon a rail;Niddle noble went his head,Widdle waggle went his tail.[1]

and:

Little Robin RedbreastSat upon a tree,Up went the Pussy-Cat,

And down went he;Down came Pussy-Cat,Away Robin ran,Says little Robin Redbreast—Catch me if you can.

Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a spade,Pussy-Cat jumped after him, and then he wasafraid.Little Robin chirped and sung, and what didpussy say?Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robinflew away.[2]

2 Origins

The earliest versions of this rhyme reveal a more basichumour. The earliest recorded is from Tommy Thumb’sPretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has the lyric:

Little Robin Red breast,Sitting on a pole,Nidde, Noddle, Went his head.And poop[3] went his Hole.[1]

By the late eighteenth century the last line was being ren-dered 'And wag went his tail,' and other variations wereused in nineteenth-century children’s books, in one of theclearest cases of bowdlerisation in nursery rhymes.[1]

3 Fingerplay

The rhyme has been used as a fingerplay. A version from1920 included instructions with the lyrics:

Little Robin RedbreastSat upon a rail,(Right hand extended in shape of a bird ispoised on extended forefinger of left hand.)Niddle noddle went his head,And waggle went his tail.(Little finger of right hand waggles from side toside.)[4]

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2 4 NOTES

4 Notes[1] I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery

Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997),pp. 371-2.

[2] Anon, TheOnly TrueMother GooseMelodies (Munroe andFrancis: Boston MA, 1833), p. 14.

[3] the meaning of this word subsequently changed, towardsthe start of the 20th century

[4] W. B. Forbush, H. T. Wade, W. J. Baltzell, R. Johnson,and D. E. Wheeler, ed., Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Prac-tical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (New York,NY: University Society, 1920), p. 10.

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5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1 Text• Little Robin Redbreast Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little%20Robin%20Redbreast?oldid=613670827 Contributors: Hyacinth,Smjg, PhilKnight, Kjell Knudde, Sabrebd and Anonymous: 5

5.2 Images• File:LittleRobinMotherGoose1833.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/LittleRobinMotherGoose1833.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Anon, ‘’The Only True Mother Goose Melodies’’ (Munroe and Francis: Boston MA, 1833), p.14. Original artist: Anon

• File:PeasePorridgeHotImage1920.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/PeasePorridgeHotImage1920.png License: Public domain Contributors: In the Nursery of My Bookhouse. Chicago: The Bookhouse for Children Publishers (p. 5).Original artist: Miller, Olive Beaupre

5.3 Content license• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0