On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, DC. Mowbray wrote:
> The arguments put forward by Philip Hiscock, and others, are very
> interesting on the tradition of this nursery rhyme. But if it does date
> from the 19th century, who first associated it with the Plague and/or the
> Middle Ages? No smoke without fire?
>
I'd always thought ring a' ring o roses was about the Black Death (c1665),
that people believe that odours caused the you to get black death and so
carried sweet smelling posies. As its a nursery rhyme it must have
developed some time after the event - it would rather grewsome to sing
the song at the time. It would then be easy for someone to confuse the
two plague episodes and so think the song was Medieval. At least this is
what I was taught at school - maybe this just demonstrates how
misconceptions are spread. >
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