| Little Robin Redbreast | |
| Type: | Nursery rhyme |
| Published: | 1744 |
‘Little Robin Redbreast’ is an English language nursery rhyme, chiefly notable as evidence of the way traditional rhymes are changed and edited. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20612.[1]
This rhyme is one of the most varied English nursery rhymes, probably because of its crude early version. Common modern versions include:
Little Robin Redbreast
Came to visit me;
This is what he whistled,
Thank you for my tea.[2]
and:
Little Robin Redbreast
Sat upon a tree,
Up went the Pussy-Cat,
And down went he;
Down came Pussy-Cat,
Away Robin ran,
Says little Robin Redbreast—
Catch me if you can.
Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall,
Pussy-Cat jumped after him, and almost got a fall.
Little Robin chirped and sung, and what did pussy say?
Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robin jumped away.[3]
The earliest versions of this rhyme reveal a more basic humour. The earliest recorded is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has the lyric:
Little Robin Red breast,
Sitting on a pole,
Nidde, Noddle, Went his head.
By the late eighteenth century the last line was being rendered 'And wag went his tail,' and other variations were used in nineteenth-century children's books, in one of the clearest cases of bowdlerisation in nursery rhymes.[2]
The rhyme has been used as a fingerplay. A version from 1920 included instructions with the lyrics:
Little Robin Redbreast
Sat upon a rail,
(Right hand extended in shape of a bird is poised on extended forefinger of left hand.)
Niddle noddle went his head,
And waggle went his tail.
(Little finger of right hand waggles from side to side.)[5]