Cock Robin

'Who Killed Cock Robin' is an English nursery rhyme, which has been much used as a murder archetype in world culture. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 494.

Lyrics

Cover of Death and Burial of Poor Cock Robin, being vivid illustrations of scenes of the poem, by Henry Louis Stephens, 1865

The earliest record of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published c. 1744, which noted only the first four verses. The extended version given below was not printed until c. 1770.^[1]

Who killed Cock Robin?

I, said the Sparrow,

with my bow and arrow,

I killed Cock Robin.

Who saw him die?

I, said the Fly,

with my little eye,

I saw him die.

Who caught his blood?

I, said the Fish,

with my little dish,

I caught his blood.

Who'll make the shroud?

I, said the Beetle,

with my thread and needle,

I'll make the shroud.

Who'll dig his grave?

I, said the Owl,

with my pick and shovel,

I'll dig his grave.

Who'll be the parson?

I, said the Rook,

with my little book,

I'll be the parson.

Who'll be the clerk?

I, said the Lark,

if it's not in the dark,

I'll be the clerk.

Who'll carry the link?

I, said the Linnet,

I'll fetch it in a minute,

I'll carry the link.

Who'll be chief mourner?

I, said the Dove,

I mourn for my love,

I'll be chief mourner.

Who'll carry the coffin?

I, said the Kite,

if it's not through the night,

I'll carry the coffin.

Who'll bear the pall?

We, said the Wren,

both the cock and the hen,

We'll bear the pall.

Who'll sing a psalm?

I, said the Thrush,

as she sat on a bush,

I'll sing a psalm.

Who'll toll the bell?

I said the bull,

because I can pull,

I'll toll the bell.

All the birds of the air

fell a-sighing and a-sobbing,

when they heard the bell toll

for poor Cock Robin.

The rhyme has been often reprinted with illustrations, as suitable reading material for small children.

Origins

Although the song is not recorded until the eighteenth century there is some evidence that it might be much older. The death of a robin by an arrow is depicted in a stained glass window at Buckland Rectory, Gloucestershire.^[2] and the rhyme is similar to a story, Phyllyp Sparowe, written by John Skelton about 1508.^[1] The use of the rhyme 'owl' with 'shovel', could suggest that it was originally used in older middle English pronunciation.^[1] Versions of the story appear to exist in other countries, including Germany.^[1]

A number of theories have been advanced to explain the meaning of the rhyme:

• That the rhyme records a mythological event, such as the death of the god Balder from norse mythology, ^[1] or the ritual sacrifice of a king figure, as proposed by early folklorists as in the 'Cutty Wren' theory of a 'pagan survival'.^[3][4]
• That it is a parody of the death of William Rufus, who was killed by an arrow in the new forest in 1100.^[5]
• That the rhyme is connected with the fall of the government of Robert Walpole in 1742, since Robin is a diminutive form of Robert and the first printing is close to the time of the events mentioned.^[1]
• More recently internet speculation has associated the rhyme with Robin Hood, largely, it seems on the basis of a shared name.^[6]

All of these theories are based on perceived similarities in the text to legendary or historical events, or on the similarities of names. Peter Opie pointed out that an existing rhyme could have been adapted to fit the circumstances of political events in the eighteenth century.^[1] As with many such theories there is no textual or supportive evidence that the rhyme is connected to the selected events, or that the phrase 'Cock Robin' was used before the rhyme was first published.^[7]

In popular culture

The theme of the death of Cock Robin, has become something of an archetype of murder, much used in literary fiction, including:

In books

• The best-selling mystery novel of 1928, The Bishop Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine featuring detective Philo Vance, used this poem in the form of an anonymous note which accompanied the murder of a Christopher Robbin, who was found pierced by an arrow. Further murders are accompanied by references to Mother Goose rhymes such as Little Miss Muffet. This novel is significant in the history of the mystery novel because it is the first time that a narrative is organized around such a formal scheme of parallels; this format was duplicated many times in the genre afterwards by Agatha Christie and others.
• In John Steinbeck's, In Dubious Battle (1936), the character of Doctor Burton refers to Cock Robin being similar to the murder of Joy, a communist extremist trying to join the strike of the apple pickers within the novel. Joy is used as an example of the violence from the other side and his friend Mac insists he would have wanted it that way.
• Who Really Killed Cock Robin: An Ecological Mystery by Jean Craighead George was a 1971 young adult book dealing with the subject of environmental pollution.
• The Short Story The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds from Neil Gaiman's collection M is for Magic features many nursery rhyme characters in a detective story setting, including Cock Robin who is killed by Sergeant Sparrow O'Grady.
• The rhyme is mentioned in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1939) by Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antique shop.

In plays

• In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) by Tennessee Williams, Margaret says the lines: "Who shot cock-robin? I with my merciful arrow!"

In film

• Who Killed Cock Robin?" was burlesqued in a 1935 animated Walt Disney Silly Symphony.^[8]
• A clip from the Disney short appears near the end of Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage (1936), at the point where Mrs. Verloc (Sylvia Sidney) ducks momentarily into the Verloc family movie theater as the cartoon is playing. She has just discovered that her husband, a saboteur, is responsible for the death of her young brother, who unwittingly carried a bomb within his daily delivery of film reels.
• Cock Robin is referenced in the Three Stooges 1937 short, "Disorder in the Court," in which the murder case of a Kirk Robin is tried. The murderer left a note, stating, "Who killed Kirk Robin? I killed Kirk Robin, and not with my little bow an arrow."
• Cock Robin is mentioned in passing in the Rat Pack film Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964), which adapted Robin Hood to a 1930s gangster setting.
• A Japanese version of the poem serves as the theme song, and recurring injoke, for the 1970s anime Patalliro!.

In magazines

• The April, 1979 issue of MAD Magazine included a parody poem "Who Killed the Country" based on Cock Robin.

In music

• The first few lines of "Who Killed Cock Robin" are recited by a young boy at the beginning of My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult's "Do You Fear for your Child" (1988), presumably sampled from a B-movie.
• A version of the poem appears as track 3 of Greg Brown's 2004 album, Honey in the Lion's Head.
• The song "Who Killed Davey Moore" (1963) written by Bob Dylan, dealing with the death of boxer Davey Moore, is loosely based on the poem.
• The song "Who Killed Norma Jean", with lyrics by Norman Rosten and music by Pete Seeger, borrows its structure from the poem. It was recorded by Seeger on his album We Shall Overcome: Complete Carnegie Hall Concert.

In comics and manga

• In The Cain Saga volume 2 by Kaori Yuki, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" was used as a plot to one of the side-stories.
• The poem is used in "Jail Gate Private School Murder Case", Japanese manga Kindaichi Case Files. Cock Robin refers to the victims in the murder and Sparrow represents the murderer.
• In episode 75 of Urusei Yatsura (also known as Lum, Lamu, and Those Obnoxious Aliens) the song was used as a foreshadowing and a signal that someone would die, or someone did die. 11 characters arrived and 10 of them died, each holding the object in the rhyme.
• Cock Robin is featured in the Fables comic series, and is killed by a fellow bird Fable. An owl Fable watches him die and says "Cock Robin is dead".
• The first chapter of the manga Deadman Wonderland is named after the poem.
• In A Japanese manga "Patalliro!" by Mineo Maya Cock Robin is introduced, and for this anime film A dance music "Cock Robin Ondo" was composed as one of its ending themes with the phrase 「だれがころしたクック＝ロビン (jp:"Dare ga koroshita Kokku-Robin" - "Who killed Cock Robin?")」.

In video games

• In Silent Hill 3, a puzzle in the hospital crematory room is based on the poem.

Notes

External links

• Death and Burial of Poor Cock Robin, by H. L. Stephens, from Project Gutenberg