Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Picked Pepper

DESCRIPTION: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers, How many pickled peppers did Peter pick?" (Or: "Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?")
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1819 (Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: food wordplay
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sackett/Koch-KansasFolklore, p. 122, "(Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 406, "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #740, p. 281, "(Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 182, "Peter Piper Picked a Peck (1 text)

Roud #19745
NOTES [131 words]: According to Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, the earliest printed source, Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation, included practice rhymes for every letter of the alphabet. But this was clearly the "hit" of the collection, and may well precede the other rhymes.
Despite this straightforward source and nineteenth century date, the remarkable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p. 154, informs us that Peter Piper was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in the time of Elizabeth I, and the pickled peppers were his relationships with various women. Even by Thomas's standards (and her ability to produce absurdities is beyond my mere mortal ability to fathom), that is far gone into ridiculousness. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: OO2406

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