On this date in 1609 Three Blind Mice was published in London, by Thomas Ravenscroft, believed to be the earliest printed secular song. 10 things you might not know about it.
Ravenscroft was a music theorist and composer born around 1588, known for his collections of folk music and rounds, including Deuteromelia, which is the one containing Three Blind Mice. He also wrote two treatises on Music theory. Little is known about his early life except that he sang in the choir of St Paul's Cathedral and got a degree at Cambridge.
His version was rather different from the words we know today. The lyrics then were: “Three Blinde Mice, three Blinde Mice, Dame Iulian, Dame Iulian, The Miller and his merry olde Wife, she scrapte her Tripe; licke thou the Knife.”
Like many nursery rhymes, theories abound as to the dark origins of the lyrics. A commonly quoted one is that the three blind mice represent three men executed by Mary I of England, a staunch Catholic, for being Protestants. The men in question were Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, collectively known as the Oxford Martyrs. Queen Mary, of course, was the farmer’s wife.
As to the blindness, some theories say it was literal; that the three men were tortured before they were killed and part of that involved actually blinding them. Alternatively, being Protestants meant they were blind to the truth about religion, or that they were blissfully unaware that Mary was plotting against them until it was too late.
Then again, the song was written a good half century after the deaths of the Oxford Martyrs, and in Ravenscroft’s original, there is no mention of the mice being harmed in any way.
There’s also the question, who the heck is Dame Iulian? Proponents of the religious interpretation would say it was Julian of Norwich, a nun who wrote books about her visions of Christ, although her works weren’t in the public eye until much later, around 1670. It seems more likely Dame Iulian was Dame Juliana Berners, a writer of books about falconry and hunting. The reference to cleaning tripe and licking the knife (yuck) would fit in the context of preparing an animal one had killed for the table. Though probably not the mice, as they’d be too small to eat.
The version we know dates from 1922, when it appeared in Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes by Beatrix Potter.
Various classical composers have made use of the melody, including Robert Schuman, Joseph Haydn, Antonin Dvorak and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
In America the tune has a sporting connotation. It is associated with referees making decisions the crowd disagree with during games of ice hockey or Baseball. In fact, it’s banned from many sporting events, and an organist or DJ who plays it could even be fired for calling the umpire’s calls into question.
Mouse lovers may like to know that there is a children’s book published in 1904 which ends on a more positive note for the three mice. It’s called The Complete Version of Ye Three Blind Mice and was written by John W. Ivimey. While the mice are blinded by running into a bramble bush while being chased by Mrs Farmer, and the butcher’s wife cuts off their tails, they find medicine which restores their eyesight and makes their tails grow back. They find work making wood chips, buy a house and live happily ever after.
No comments:
Post a Comment