The Pumpkin Eater’s Wife

The Pumpkin Eater’s Wife

Nope. Just nope.

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Hitch
6 years ago

The Pumpkin Eater being named Peter, no doubt…I take it that’s the wife that he couldn’t keep?

Naaman Brown
Naaman Brown
6 years ago

I hate to judge this cover by the book, but Looking Inside the preface quotes “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater” as an “American Nursery Rhyme”.

Wikipedia notes the first published version was in Infant Institutes, part the first: or a Nurserical Essay on the Poetry, Lyric and Allegorical, of the Earliest Ages, &c., (London, 1797). Reliable sources consider it an older version of “Eeper Weeper” a “popular English nursery rhyme and skipping song that tells the story of a chimney sweep who kills his second wife and hides her body up a chimney. The rhyme has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13497” sourced to: English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Grackle
Grackle
6 years ago
Reply to  Naaman Brown

I love this kind of thing–thanks for the info. What a cheerful song for jump rope!

Naaman Brown
Naaman Brown
6 years ago

Oh, the cover has been changed at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.

David King
6 years ago

So where are the pumpkins?

Naaman Brown
Naaman Brown
6 years ago
Reply to  David King

Peter ate them all.