Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

DESCRIPTION: Peter, a neeper [neighbor], pumpkin-eater, chimney sweeper, ... 'Had a wife and couldn't keep her." He put her away [in a wall, pumpkin shell] and mice eat her, or he treats her well. Or, didn't love her until he taught her to read and write.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1797 (_Infant Institutes, part the first_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: nonballad nonsense husband wife food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1896, "Peer Peter My Neeper" (1 text)
Brady-AllInAllIn, pp. 88-89, "Ee-ver, Eye-ver" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 405, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" (3 texts)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 32, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #130, "Eaper, Weaper, Chimbley-sweeper" (1 text)
Roud #13497
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper"' (tales of a chimney sweeper's family)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Heeper, peeper, Chimney-sweeper
NOTES [87 words]: There must be countless parodies like this one: "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, Had a wife and couldn't keep her, Took an axe and smashed her bike, So she had to stay at home at night" (source: Edmond Redmond, Lyra Cyclus or The Bards and the Bicycle, (Rochester, 1897 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 90). - BS
And there are also the versions, like those cited by Abrahams, that don't involve Peter but involve a chimney sweeper. It can be very hard to tell these from "I'm a Poor Old Chimney Sweeper"; better to check both. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: GrD81896

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