Rub-a-dub-dub

DESCRIPTION: "Rub-a-dub-dub, Three men in a tub." They are the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. They may have gone to the fair, or "jumped out of a rotten potato."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1797 (cf. Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose)
KEYWORDS: worker food playparty courting mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) New Zealand Ireland
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1619, "Rub a Dub, Dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice, #6, "Rub a Dub Dub" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peirce-KeepTheKettleBoiling, p. 18, "(Rub a dub dub)" (1 text)
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, pp. 109-110, "(The butcher and the baker)" (1 text. lacking the "rub-a-dub" mention and converted into a skipping/counting rhyme about being kissed in the corner)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #52, "The butcher and the baker" (1 text, the Sutton-Smith version)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 460, "Rub-a-dub-dub" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #133, p. 106, "(Rub-a-dub-dub)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 186, "Rub-a-Dub-Dub" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 33, "Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men in a Tub" (2 texts)
Roud #3101
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Rub a Dub Dub
NOTES [85 words]: According to the Opies, in the earliest version, it was not the butcher and all who were in the tub, but three giirls whom butcher, baker, brewer, candlestick-maker, etc. watched -- presumably at one of the less reputable corners of a fair. Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel goes farther and suggests a gay peep show.
Daniel Smith, The Language of London: Cockney Rhyming Slang, Michael O'Mara Books, 2011, p. 55, says that this rhyme was so well-known that it gave rise to the slang expression "rub-a-dub" for "pub." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG133

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