There Was a Man of Thessaly

DESCRIPTION: "There was a man of Thessaly, And he was wondrous wise, He jumped into a thorn bush And scratched out both his eyes. And when he saw his eyes were out, With all his might and main, He jumped into another bush And scratched them in again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c. 1744 (Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: injury healing
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 498, "There Was a Man of Thessaly" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #28, p. 40, "(There was a Man so Wise)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 126, "The Man of Thessaly" (1 text)
Roud #15749
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnny Lad (I)" (lyrics)
NOTES [155 words]: Katherine Elwes Thomas can always be counted on to produce a wild interpretation, but this one may set the record: According to the Baring-Goulds, she suggested that this is about the Rev'd. Dr. Hery Sacheverell (died 1724), who in 1709 preached a pair of sermons on church reform which produced riots and who was impeached then taken back into high favor with Queen Anne's government. As for any connection with Thessaly (or Nineveh, or any of the other places mentioned in versions of the song)... well, Dr. Sacheverell was quite learned, so presumably he'd heard of them....
An hypothesis I would regard as much more reasonable is that the song refers to Bellerophon, the Greek hero who slew the Chimera, came from Thessaly, and ended up falling off Pegasus, landing in a thorn bush, and becoming blind, although I don't know why there would be a nursery rhyme about him or why it would say he scratched his eyes in again. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: OO2498

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