| "Three Blind Mice" Roud #3753 |
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| Written by | Traditional |
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| Published | c. 1805 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
Three Blind Mice is an English nursery rhyme and musical round.[1] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753.
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Contents
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Lyrics
The modern words are:
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| Problems listening to this file? See media help. | |
- Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
- See how they run. See how they run.
- They all ran after the farmer's wife,
- Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
- Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
- As three blind mice?[2]
Origins and meaning
A version of this rhyme, together with music, was published in Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie (1609)[3]. The editor of the book, and possible author of the rhyme,[4] was Thomas Ravenscroft, who in 1609 was still a teenager.[1] The original lyrics are:
- Three Blinde Mice,
- Three Blinde Mice,
- Dame Iulian,
- Dame Iulian,
- the Miller and his merry olde Wife,
- she scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.[1]
Attempts to read historical significance into the words[2] have led to the speculation that this musical round was written earlier and refers to Queen Mary I of England blinding and executing three Protestant bishops,[5] but problematically the Oxford Martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the stake, not blinded.[2] The earliest lyrics do not talk about directly killing the three blind mice and are dated long after Queen Mary died, and "she scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife" implies they were prepared and consumed. There is a narrative ambiguity at the heart of the rhyme, which is the question over whether the mice are chasing the farmer's wife after she cut their tails off, or whether she cut their tails off after they began chasing her. The rhyme only entered children's literature in 1842 when it was published in a collection by James Orchard Halliwell.
Variations and uses
Amateur music composer Thomas Oliphant(1799–1873)[6] noted in 1843 that:
This absurd old round is frequently brought to mind in the present day, from the circumstance of there being an instrumental Quartet by Weiss, through which runs a musical phrase accidentally the same as the notes applied to the word Three Blind Mice. They form a third descending, C, B, A.[7]
Joseph Holbrooke (1878–1958) composed his Symphonic Variations, opus 37, based on Three Blind Mice. Also, Joseph Haydn used its theme in the Finale (4th Mvt) of his Symphony 83 (La Poule) (1785–86); one of the 6 Paris Symphonies, and the music also appears in the final movement of English composer Eric Coates' suite The Three Men. "Three Blind Mice" was also used as a theme song for The Three Stooges and a Curtis Fuller arrangement of the rhyme is featured on the Art Blakey live album of the same name. The song is also the basis for Leroy Anderson's orchestral "Fiddle Faddle".
The theme of the second movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 (1926, revised 1928 and 1941) is partially based on Three Blind Mice.[8]
The Three Blind Mice are guests of Old King Cole in the 1933 Disney cartoon of the same name.
A jazzy "Three Blind Mice" tune is used in the introduction of The Three Stooges short subjects, produced by Columbia Pictures from 1939 through 1959.
The 1962 James Bond film Dr. No features a calypso version of "Three Blind Mice" with new lyrics, in reference to three villainous characters in the film.[9]
In several sports (basketball and hockey, for example, which have three referees), "Three Blind Mice" is used as a derogatory phrase for poor referees. Bands also play the song to mock referees in similar cases. Such references, however, are frowned upon officially by both sports as unsportsmanlike.[10][11][12] Before Major League Baseball required four umpires at every game, there were regularly three. The Brooklyn Dodgers had a fan band called the "Sym-Phoney Band", led by Shorty Laurice, which started playing "Three Blind Mice" when the umpires came out onto the field until the league office ordered the team to stop. In 1985, Wilbur Snapp, the organist for the baseball Clearwater Phillies, was thrown out of the game for playing "Three Blind Mice" after what he considered a bad call.
The VIC-20 and Commodore 64 computer game Radar Rat Race from 1981 used a fast-paced, out of tune version of the song as background theme, which cycles endlessly.
Reggae artist Max Romeo has covered the rhyme. Canadian rock trio Rush often played "Three Blind Mice" as an intro to their own songs in concert, notably during their "Hold Your Fire" tour of 1987–1988.[13]
The nursery rhyme plays significantly into the plot of Agatha Christie's short story of the same name as well as The Mousetrap, the stage play based upon it.
See also
References
- ^ a b c I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 306.
- ^ a b c W. S. Baring-Gould and C. Baring-Gould, The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New (Bramhall House, 1962), p. 156.
- ^ Thomas Ravenscroft., Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie, or melodius Musicke. Of Pleasant Roundalaies; Printed for Thomas Adams (1609). "Rounds or Catches of 3 Voices, #13" (Online version)
- ^ Christopher Baker, Absolutism and the scientific revolution, 1600-1720: a biographical dictionary, "Ravenscroft, Thomas (C.1590-C.1623)", Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, ISBN 0313308276, 9780313308277, 450 pages (page 319)
- ^ Espoused by Albert Jack, Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes, Allen Lane (2008). ISBN 978-1846141447.
- ^ Papers of the Manchester Literary Club By Manchester Literary Club, Published by H. Rawson & Co., 1890
- ^ La musa madrigalesca: Or, A Collection of Madrigals, Ballets, Roundelays, Etc., Chiefly of the Elizabethan Age; with Remarks and Annotations. By Thomas Oliphant, Published by Calkin and Budd, 1837
- ^ Greenfield, Edward (1988). The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140468293.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Play Us a Song, You're the Organ Man, Hockey Digest
- ^ ESPN – Frank not fined; Kidd docked $20K for postgame rant – NBA
- ^ Harvard University Band
- ^ 'What was your favourite Rush concert... and why?'
External links
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