There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many children she didn't know what to do; She gave them some broth without any bread; She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Gammer Gurton's Garland, according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: children abuse injury food poverty
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 546, "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe" (2 texts)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #87, p. 85, "(There was an old woman who lived in a shoe)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 208, "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 38, "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #402, "Old lady, old lady, Lived in a shoe" (1 text, which Abrahams implies is "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go Upstairs" mixed with "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"); #559, "There ws an old woman who lived in a shack" (identical in plot with this although it might be a deliberate rewrite)
Roud #19132
NOTES [92 words]: Several sources connect this with King George II of Great Britain, but supporting evidence, as usual, is lacking. Dolby-OrangesAndLemons also mentions an Elizabeth Vergoose of Boston, who had six children and ten stepchildren, but again, no supporting evidence (as Dolby-OrangesAndLemons admits).
The ever-hallucinatory Karen Elwes Thomas (The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930), p. 26, appears to connect this with the accession in England of James VI and I. She offers her usual supporting evidence, i.e. nothing. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: OO2546

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography