Many of us of us fondly recall the rhyming ditties we learned as
children, such as "Jack Be Nimble" and "The Farmer in the Dell."
But how many of us realize that several of our most fondly-recalled
nursery rhymes (e.g., "A Tisket, A Tasket" and "Little Jack
Horner") were not mere nonsense songs, but actually originated as
coded references to such dark events as plagues and religious
persecution? Such was the case with another childhood favorite,
"Sing a Song of Sixpence."
For those unfamiliar with this ditty, let's start by offering its
lyrics:
Sing a song of sixpence
A pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing
Was that not a tasty dish
To set before a king?
The King was in his counting house
Counting out his money
The Queen was in the parlor
Eating bread and honey The Maid was in the garden
Hanging out the clothes
When down came a blackbird
And snapped off her nose!
The surprising truth is that this innocent little rhyme, which
dates from the early 1700s, actually represents a coded message
used to recruit crew members for pirate vessels!
Pirates (or corsairs, privateers whose activities were sanctioned
by letters of marque from a sovereign) did not
spend all their time at sea: they cruised the waters in areas such
as the Mediterranean, the Spanish Main, or the Atlantic coast of
North America, looking for prizes, and they returned to port when
the need for supplies or repairs demanded it. Upon reaching port,
the ship's captain paid off the crew (primarily by dividing the
spoils of whatever they had captured), and the crew members then
dispersed ashore (usually to spend all their pay on alcohol and
prostitutes as quickly as possible). Some crewmen tended to stay in
the vicinity, but others left for other regions, caught on with
other ships, died, were killed, or simply disappeared. Thus, much
like the captains of naval vessels and merchant traders, the
captains of pirate ships needed to recruit new crew members
whenever they embarked on yet another venture. Since piracy (as
opposed to privateering) was against the law, pirates devised codes
that could be used to advertise for crew members without openly
revealing their illegal affiliations.
The nursery rhyme "Six a Song of Sixpence" was a coded message that
evolved over several years' times and was used by confederates of
the notorious pirate Blackbeard to recruit crew members for his
prize-hunting expeditions. Like many other messages passed down to
us over hundreds of years by oral tradition, there is no one
"official" version, nor is there a "correct" interpretation for any
particular variant. In general, however, the most common form of
this rhyme bore these veiled meanings:
