Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" Roud #4439
Written by	Traditional
Published	c. 1744
Written	England
Language	English
Form	Nursery rhyme

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep is an English nursery rhyme, sung to a variant of the 1761 French melody Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman. The original form of the tune is used for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the "Alphabet song". The words have changed little in two and a half centuries. It has been suggested that the rhyme is a complaint against medieval English taxes on wool and in the twentieth century it was a subject of controversies in debates about "political correctness". The Roud Folk Song Index, classifies this tune and its variations as number 4439.

Modern version

The rhyme as illustrated by Dorothy M. Wheeler

Recent versions tend to take the following form:

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir, yes, sir,

Three bags full;

One for the master,

And one for the dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.^[1]

Original version

William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose

This rhyme was first printed in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, the oldest surviving collection of English language nursery rhymes, published c. 1744 with the lyrics very similar to those still used today:

Bah, Bah a black Sheep,

Have you any Wool?

Yes merry have I,

Three Bags full,

One for my master,

One for my Dame,

One for the little Boy

That lives down the lane.^[1]

In the next surviving printing, in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765), the rhyme remained the same, except the last lines, which were given as, "But none for the little boy who cries in the lane".^[1] The Roud Folk Song Index, which catalogues folk songs and their variations by number, classifies the song as 4439 and variations have been collected across Great Britain and North America.^[2]

Melody

	Baa, Baa, Blacksheep Tune for Baa, Baa, Blacksheep
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The rhyme is usually sung to a variant of the 1761 French melody Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman, which is also used for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the "Alphabet song". The words and melody appeared together in the well-known children's book by Walter Crane: The Baby's Opera", first published in 1877 by George Routledge and Sons, London and New York (see: Isobel Spenser, "Walter Crane", Macmillan Publishing, N.Y., 1975). It remains possible that there are earlier examples of the words and this music existing together. The French melody is certainly the most common melody used at present. It may be noted that "Baa, Baa, Black sheep" was set to different music, composed by James Hook, and published by Bland & Weller, London, in 1799 in "Hook's Original Christmas Box. Vol. III". This is very likely the first time that "Baa Baa Black Sheep" ever was published together with music. Curiously, still different music was used in a collection: "A Kindergarden Book of Folk-Songs", assembled by Lorrraine Warner and published by E. C. Schirmer, Boston, 1922.

Origins and meaning

As with many nursery rhymes, attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme. Katherine Elwes Thomas in The Real Personages of Mother Goose (1930) suggested that the rhyme referred to resentment at the heavy taxation on wool,^[3] this has particularly been taken to refer to the medieval English 'Great' or 'Old Custom' wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century.^[1] However, this tax did not involve the collection of one-third to the king, and one-third to the church, but a less punitive sum of 6s 8d to the Crown per sack, about 5 per cent of the value.^[4] More recently the rhyme has been connected to the slave trade, particularly in the southern United States.^[5] This explanation was advanced during debates over political correctness and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but there is no historical evidence to support this case.^[6] Rather than being negative, the wool of black sheep may have been prized as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing.^[5]

Modern controversies

The black sheep, illustrated by Denslow

A controversy emerged over changing the language of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' in Britain from 1986, because, it was alleged in the popular press, it was seen as racially dubious. This was based only on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery as an exercise for the children there and not on any local government policy.^[7] A similar controversy emerged in 1999 when reservations about the rhyme were submitted to Birmingham City Council by a working group on racism in children's resources, which were never approved or implemented.^[8] Two private nurseries in Oxfordshire in 2006 altered the song to "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep", with black being replaced with a variety of other adjectives, like "happy, sad, hopping" and "pink".^[9] Commentators have asserted that these controversies have been exaggerated or distorted by some elements of the press as part of a more general campaign against political correctness.^[7]

Allusions

The phrase "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir" has been used to describe any obsequious or craven subordinate. It is attested from 1910, and originally was common in the British Royal Navy.^[10]

Linguistics

The term 'Baa Baa Black Sheep dialect' has also been used informally in linguistics to describe varieties of English that allow the syntax "Have you any wool?" compared to the alternative "Do you have any wool?" with the auxiliary verb 'do'. In the question 'Have you any wool?' the verb 'have' appears as a transitive verb with the sense of possession, however it also appears to behave like an auxiliary in the sense that it undergoes syntactic inversion.^[11]

Popular culture

The rhyme has often been raised in literature and popular culture. Rudyard Kipling used the rhyme as the title of his 1888 short story.^[12] The name Black Sheep Squadron was used for the Marine Attack Squadron 214 of the United States Marine Corps from 1942 and the title Baa Baa Black Sheep was used for a book by its leader Colonel Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and was used for a TV series (later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron that aired on NBC from 1976 until 1978.^[13] In 1951, together with "In the Mood", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was the first song ever to be digitally saved and played on a computer.^[14]

See also

Children's literature portal

• Nursery rhymes

Notes

External links

• Rhyme and music
• Have You Any? Song Lyrics & Words
• Nursery Rhyme Videos including Baa Baa Black Sheep