Brief History: First, let’s get one thing straight - this isn’t about the bubonic plague. I know the whole of the internet wants to fight me on this and I even let people think it is because I’ve been told I sound like an insistent snob when I argue about it. For the sake of this blog, I’ll be stating the facts as I know them. But also, just to be honest I thought this Mother Goose rhyme was about the Black Plague for a long time. First of all, the Black Death was most prominent in the 14th Century and then popped up around Europe in large patches every 20 to 40 years until the 1600s. The earliest versions of “Ring Around the Roses” can only be traced to the late 1700s and that’s German version which seems very different in meaning. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t about a disease, but most historians think cholera or scarlet fever would be more likely. Other theories include it being about fairy rings, old pagan well-wishes (although this falls into that timing problem again), and simply being a children’s game full of superstitious phrases meant to bring good luck.
Analysis: In keeping with the disease them, people really didn’t start that theory until after WWI. But it makes sense with modern versions, but again, still can’t be the Black Plague. “Ring around a roses” was rumored to be what patterns the Black Death left on the body. The Bubonic plague didn’t cause rashes like people think, it causes horrible, puss filled growths in key areas of the body. This would be more logical with other diseases, specifically scarlet fever. By the Nineteenth Century, doctors still believed good smells could ward off sickness, hence the posies, and “all fall down” you know. However, earliest versions had nothing to do with the dark sounds of ashes and falling. They were about rose trees and squatting and being the first to win the game.
Blame it on the Spanish Flu: After Wold War I the world changed, not just from weapons and economic depression, but from the widespread and misnamed Spanish Flu. You can look up the Flu for yourself . It’s been in the media a lot lately. I suggest BioGraphics youtube channel’s take on it, which includes medical research as well as how it spread and effected society. By World War II, soldiers were mostly like haunted by the diseases of their predecessors and had sickness on the brain. What else did the they have on the brain? Anything they could think of which included old Mother Goose recitations. You have to keep your mind active in the down time and what better way than to speculate how the most common child rhyme could be a link the most famous disease in history?
Final Thoughts: Where’s the Covid 19 Nursery Rhyme, huh?
