Simple Simon (nursery rhyme)
{{short description|Nursery rhyme}}
{{About|the nursery rhyme||Simple Simon (disambiguation){{!}}Simple Simon}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Simple Simon
| cover = Simple Simon 1 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
| alt =
| caption = William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Simple Simon, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
| type = Nursery rhyme
| written =
| published = 1764
| writer = Traditional
| composer =
| lyricist =
}}
"Simple Simon" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19777.
Text
File:Simple Simon 2 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
The rhyme is as follows;
:Simple Simon met a pieman,
:Going to the fair;
:Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
:Let me taste your ware.
:Said the pieman to Simple Simon,
:Show me first your penny;
:Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
:Sir I haven't any.
:Simple Simon went a-fishing,
:For to catch a whale;
:All the water he had got,
:Was in his mother's pail.
:Simple Simon went to look
:If plums grew on a thistle;
:He pricked his fingers very much,
:Which made poor Simon whistle.I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 333-4.
:He went for water in a sieve
:But soon it all fell through
:And now poor Simple Simon
:Bids you all adieu!Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/K0i-SdMOV4g Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20121018030710/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0i-SdMOV4g Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0i-SdMOV4g| title = Simple Simon {{!}} Nursery Rhymes And Kids Songs by KidsCamp | website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}
Origin
The verses used today are the first of a longer chapbook history first published in 1764. The character of Simple Simon may have been in circulation much longer, possibly through an Elizabethan chapbook and in a ballad, Simple Simon's Misfortunes and his Wife Margery's Cruelty, from about 1685. A possible inspiration is Simon Edy, a beggar of the St Giles area in the 18th century.{{citation |title=Old and New London: Westminster and the western suburbs Volume 3 of Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places, Old and New London |author=Walter Thornbury, Edward Walford |publisher=Cassell, Petter, & Galpin |year=1880 |page=207}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://ingeb.org/songs/simplesi.html A page containing the full text of the rhyme]
{{Authority control}}
Category:English nursery rhymes
Category:English children's songs