The Pumpkin Eater being named Peter, no doubt…I take it that’s the wife that he couldn’t keep?
Naaman Brown
7 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.
The Pumpkin Eater being named Peter, no doubt…I take it that’s the wife that he couldn’t keep?
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.
I love this kind of thing–thanks for the info. What a cheerful song for jump rope!
Oh, the cover has been changed at amazon.com and amazon.co.uk.
So where are the pumpkins?
Peter ate them all.