Mary Mary Quite Contrary
How did your nursery rhyme grow?
Today I’m investigating another nursery rhyme to see where it came from and what it really means — if anything!
Mary Mary Quite Contrary
Mary Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row!
Oh, isn’t this a sweet one? But beware: this rhyme might just have a dark and grisly past.
There are a number of interpretations, with the Mary Tudor and Mary, Queen of Scots ones being most popular. There are certain similarities to their stories, which make it harder to determine which, if either, the rhyme was about. Both were Catholics, and therefore ‘contrary’ to the prevailing Protestantism of the country thanks to the previous king, Mary Tudor’s father. Their husbands also cheated on both of them, which may be what the cockle shells refer to.
Or it may not… Other versions of the song have in the final line ‘and cowslips all in a row’ or ‘and lady bells all in a row’, both types of flowers. The earliest printed version of the song (18th century) has the last line ‘and so my garden grows’. Although… yet another 18th century variation gives the final line as ‘sing cuckolds all in a row’……
