Little Robin Redbreast

‘Little Robin Redbreast’ is an English language nursery rhyme, chiefly notable as evidence of the way traditional rhymes are changed and edited. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20612.[1]

"Little Robin Redbreast"
Nursery rhyme
Publishedc. 1744
Songwriter(s)Unknown
An illustration for the rhyme from The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (1833)

Lyrics

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

Words Fingerplay

Little Robin Redbreast
Sat upon a rail;
Niddle noddle went his head,
Wiggle waggle went his tail.[2]

Right hand extended in shape of a bird
poised on extended forefinger of left hand.
Little finger of right hand waggles from side to side.

Little Robin Redbreast
Came to visit me;
This is what he whistled,
Thank you for my tea.[2]

and:

Little Robin Redbreast
Sat 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 wall,
Pussy-Cat jumped after him, and almost got a fall.
Little Robin chirped and sung, and what did pussy say?
Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robin jumped away.[3]

Origins

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The earliest versions of this rhyme reveal a more basic humour. The earliest recorded is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has the lyric:

Little Robin Red breast,
Sitting on a pole,
Nidde, Noddle, Went his head.
And poop[4] went his Hole.[2]

By the late eighteenth century the last line was being rendered 'And wag went his tail,' and other variations were used in nineteenth-century children's books, in one of the clearest cases of bowdlerisation in nursery rhymes.[2]

Fingerplay

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The rhyme has been used as a fingerplay. A version from 1920 included instructions with the lyrics:

Little Robin Redbreast
Sat upon a rail,
(Right hand extended in shape of a bird is poised on extended forefinger of left hand.)
Niddle noddle went his head,
And waggle went his tail.
(Little finger of right hand waggles from side to side.)[5]

Notes

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  1. ^ "Roud Folksong Index S303787 Little Robin Redbreast came to visit me". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 371-2.
  3. ^ Anon, The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (Munroe and Francis: Boston MA, 1833), p. 14.
  4. ^ the meaning of this word subsequently changed, towards the start of the 20th century
  5. ^ W. B. Forbush, H. T. Wade, W. J. Baltzell, R. Johnson, and D. E. Wheeler, ed., Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (New York, NY: University Society, 1920), p. 10.