Down Melody Lane Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hickory Dickory Dock

"Hickory Dickory Dock" was first published in 1744, and evidence suggests it began in America. It is also known by the name of "Hickory, dickory doc!" because the title is a nonsense rhyme.

Hickory and dock are also plants. The word hickory is thought to be originated from the Native American word "Pawcohiccora" and is a type of tree that produces nuts. Dock is considered a weed and has a long taproot. It does, however, have use as a medicinal plant, especially for stings by stinging nettles.

Answer: Seven

"As I Was Going to St. Ives" goes something like this:

"As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?"

And, for future reference, the standard answer to the riddle is one, as the most common interpretation is that the narrator (the "I") was going to St. Ives, and he met the other man on the way there! But if you multiplied everything out, there would be a total of 2800 kits, cats, sacks, and wives, as well as the man with whom they were traveling, for a total of 2801.

Answer: King

King is the highest rank, although a bishop and a steward were also part of the history. The following is the reputed story.

It began when King Henry VIII (the eighth) took England away from the Catholic church, as the Pope refused to allow him to divorce his then-wife, Catherine of Aragon, and established the Church of England. Because England was no longer Catholic, King Henry ordered that all monasteries were to be dissolved, and looted for gold and silver and taken for land.

Glastonbury Abbey was, at the time, the richest monastery around, and was headed by Bishop Richard Whiting. In order to preserve the monastery, Whiting attempted a bribe. He sent his steward, Thomas Horner, to deliver 12 property deeds to King Henry. Ironically, they were hidden in a pie.

Instead, Horner took one of the deeds for himself, the deed to Mells Manor (which he is said to have stuck his hand into the pie for), and delivered the other eleven to the king. Unfortunately, this did not appease King Henry, and Whiting was executed for continued loyalty to Rome, the seat of the Pope.

Answer: Four

Those months are April, June, September, and November. February has 28 days (29 if it's a Leap Year), and the other seven have 31.

There's also another way to remember the months that have 31 days. Make your right hand into a fist. Use the other hand to count the months using your knuckles and the skin between them. When you reach the end (July) begin again on the first knuckle you started on. All the months you listed on your knuckles will have 31 days!

Answer: Rye

The rhyme is called "Sing a Song of Sixpence" and people would use sixpence to purchase a pocket full of rye, which was a grain used to feed birds. People also used to eat blackbirds as a delicacy, hence the next line of "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie."

Answer: Jack

"Jack Be Nimble" is believed to be a rhyme about the English pirate Black Jack. Jack was notorious for evading and escaping from the authorities in the 16th century, which required him to be nimble and quick.

The rest of the rhyme can't be explained quite as well, but it does refer to the sport of candle jumping, which originated from jumping over fires. The sport was changed when people found jumping over fires to be too dangerous.

Answer: Spoon

"Hey Diddle Didddle" is a nonsense poem. It was designed to allow children the image of impossible things happening, like a cow jumping over the moon or a cat with a fiddle.

Answer: They fall down

A very popular idea behind this rhyme is that it was about the bubonic plague that swept through Europe in the 1300s. The rhyme, however, was changed into what many know it to be today. The original, which is still used today, went something like this:

"Ring-a-ring o'Rosies
A pocket full of posies
'A-tishoo! A-tishoo!'
We all fall down"

The symptoms of bubonic plague include a rosy rash with a ring around it and violent sneezing, represented in the rhyme by the a-tishoo.

Posies were herbs to ward off the smell of plague, which was believed to be the source of the disease.

The sneezes were changed to the ashes common in the rhyme today, possibly to symbolize the cremation of bodies. "We all fall down" symbolizes the death rate of the disease. Over 60% of the entire population of Europe, which was very small at the time, was affected and killed by the plague, and many others were affected but not killed.

Answer: United States

While Schmidt and the suffix -heimer are very common German names, the lyrics to the rhyme originated in the United States. It is believed to be a play on how many Germans immigrated to America at different points in history.

Answer: It is broken

"London Bridge is Broken Down" is believed to refer to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. The "Lady Lee" in the poem is thought to be Lady Margaret White, who became Lady Lee when she married.

Margaret and Anne were childhood friends, and Margaret was Anne's lady-in-waiting. It is reported that Margaret accompanied Anne (the "gay ladye") to her decapitation after Anne was accused and convicted of bigamy.