James Rogers (jetan@ionet.net)
Thu, 11 Nov 1999 13:00:35 -0600
At 11:40 AM 11/11/99 EST, you wrote:
>
>
>What I have heard about ring around the rosie is that
it was that it came
>about during an epidemic of roseola (?) a childhood
disease. Children would
>die from it very easily...so in the rhyme...when the
children fell...it was
>because they had died.
>(this was recently re-enacted and explained at a
local park here in
>Mass...where I guess the epidemic was quite
rampant)
>Jess
I
had heard this story also and was quite disappointed to find
that it seems to be a myth. "Ring around the rosy"(or roses)
doesn't appear in a Mother Goose - or any known anthology -
until 1881. Apparantly there isn't any real evidence
connecting the rhyme with any plague, but it makes such a
good story that I imagine it will go on forever.
Am
I really discussing Mother Goose on Rara-Avis? Pun
unintentional.
James
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