How many blackbirds in a pie

How else would I have learnt about the notorious life of Edward Teach, the medieval splendours of entremet, the lacklustre poet laureate Henry Pye and the larger than life shenanigans of Henry the VIII. Come back soon for another journey of discovery as we visit another popular rhyme.

Meanwhile if you find time do visit the previous articles in this series you will peruse the peculiar origins of Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty and Mother Goose. It lead me to come up with my own unsubstantiated interpretation. I think the cake is indeed a ship, one involved in blackbirding, which refers to the kidnapping of people and then forcing them to work.

The blackbirds are black people being exploited. It seems to me that the king is making a financial gain from these exploits, the queen too, but the working classes feel threatened by the competition in the labour market; by free labour or by those kidnapped workers leaving forced labour, unable to get a passage home and working for money. The only problem with this interpretation I can find is that the term Blackbirding as far as my cursory research reveals comes later than the poem and would be associated more with Australia than the UK.

However I cling to the idea that the term is older I just haven't found the evidence, yet All I did was write a little 'poem' about a blackbird that visits my birdbath, and sent it to my neighbour.

She, in her delving way, found your website and sent it to me. What a fascinating journey. I saw your Maxfield Parrish illustration, and headed to look at the one I have to see if same, but no it was Old King Cole. Great to look at it in a new light. Can you decipher that one?? This was THE night for Wassail and making pranks on one and all. A great favourite was to put a live bird into an empty pie crust NOT BAKED as the Rhyme says so that when the crust was opened the bird flew out shocking the person in question.

NB: It wasn't baked alive. The bird wouldn't fly out would it? It would be dead! I've read other explanations of this nursery rhyme but yours is over the top! I remember singing this as a child and enjoying the ending. Thanks for the enjoyable history lesson. Very interesting dissection of the meaning of this children's nursery rhyme. I enjoyed reading it! Daren - appreciate your visit.

Divorced Beheaded Died. Divorced Beheaded Survived. In -that-order. Thank you - Glad you found this fascinating. I have been working my way through the nursery rhymes this is fourth in the series and the information I research and find enhances my curiosity even further! So well researched and fascinating.

I enjoyed this! Oh, the mistreatment of animals by baking them alive, not to mention that dwarf. Delving into the true meaning behind, and history of nursery rhymes is remarkably interesting, Docmo. This hub was captivating and a pleasure to read.

Good work. Marine Biology. Electrical Engineering. Computer Science. Medical Science. Writing Tutorials. Performing Arts. Visual Arts. Student Life. Vocational Training. Standardized Tests. Online Learning. Social Sciences. Chris Baz. Apr 6, PM. John W Shreve. Chrissy Krainock Luders, I was just told the rhymes. Mar 27, PM. Lynne Cage. Mar 27, AM. Carl Belken. Mar 17, PM. Carmel Herbert. Keith Hennessey, the answer is correct. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie!

Darlene Davidson, why do people give you the thumbs down all the time? Did I miss something? Sue Fairweather. Dec 31, PM. We used to jump rope to that rhyme, and many others I had forgotten.

My favourite theory is that the 24 blackbirds baked in a pie represent the hours in a day. Opening the pie and the birds singing represents dawn and the dawn chorus. Also Know, how many is 4 and 20 blackbirds? Four-and-twenty is just an obsolete way of saying twenty - four. It is "two dozen"; dozen is commonly used to express approximate numbers of a certain size. Sing a song of sixpence , a pocket full of rye; Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing, Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king? When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing. Now wasn't that a dainty dish to set before a king? The king was in his counting house counting out his money; the queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey.

Is Humpty Dumpty the king? What are the words to 4 and 20 blackbirds? Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye; Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

What is the real meaning of Jack and Jill? Jack is the most common name used in English-language nursery rhymes and represented an archetypal Everyman hero by the 18th century, while Jill or Gill had come to mean a young girl or a sweetheart by the end of the Middle Ages.