Mixed Up Nursery Rhymes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Little Boy Blue

If you "blow your own horn" you are bragging or boasting. Some people think that this rhyme makes fun of a churchman named Cardinal Wolsey, who lived from 1475 to 1530, in the time of Henry VIII. The Cardinal built a fancy palace at Hampton Court and many of the people thought he was more concerned with getting power and wealth for himself than taking care of the spiritual needs of his flock of sheep (the people of England).

Answer: Georgie Porgie

Georgie Porgie was a nickname that made fun of George Villiers, a duke who was a favorite friend of King James I of England. Georgie Porgie was very naughty, but he was so handsome, rich, and powerful that he could get away with almost anything, which made other men at King James's court angry and jealous.

Many ladies, including the Queen of France, (the girls) fell in love with him, and Parliament (the boys) had to put a stop to it.

Answer: Mary / lamb / fleece was white as snow

The song "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was written by Bostonian Sarah Hale in 1830, and most Americans think of it as a nursery rhyme. Children like having pets that love them so much they want to follow them everywhere, even to school. Thomas Edison used the familiar words of this rhyme to make the very first sound recording.

Answer: a spider who sat down beside her

It was a spider, which has led some people to believe the story is about a little girl named Patience Muffet, whose stepfather wrote a book about insects. Of course, as we know, a spider is not an insect but an arachnid. A tuffet is a comfortable, cloth-covered stool. Curds and whey are the white lumps and liquid in a dairy product like cottage cheese.

Answer: the water spout

In Canada, nannywoo's children learned "Eensy, Weensy Spider"; in the United States, nannywoo's grandchildren learned "Itsy, Bitsy Spider"! Some children say "climbed up the water spout" and others say "climbing up the spout"! This is what happens with folk songs. The words can change. But, as far as I know, it's always a spider. How do you sing it?

Answer: dog

It goes: "Hey, Diddle, Diddle, the cat and the fiddle. The cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon." This one was always nannywoo's favorite as a child, maybe because she played the violin, had dogs for pets, lived on a farm where there were cows, and often ate yummy desserts from a dish with a spoon.

Answer: vinegar and brown paper

I used to think that Jack's crown was like a king's crown that they put back on his head, but it was really the crown of his head! So, we wouldn't use a nail, for sure. People really did use vinegar and brown paper to help bruises and wounds to the head feel better. The paper was soaked in the vinegar and heated, then torn into strips and put on the head in layers.

Answer: Aiken Drum

I first heard this song on a Raffi recording, but it is much older than Raffi, going back to Scotland in the 1700s. The chorus goes: "He played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle. He played upon a ladle, and his name was Aiken Drum." His clothes are made of cream cheese, roast beef, penny loaves, and haggis bags.

He may have been an elf-like creature called a Brownie, but he sounds delicious!

Answer: nutmeg

This story is about a royal visit. In 1506, two princesses came from Spain to visit the royal court of Henry VII in England. One of them, thirteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon, had been married in 1501 to the English crown prince, whose name was Arthur.

But Prince Arthur died, so Catherine then married his younger brother, who became King Henry VIII. Real trees don't bear silver and gold fruit or nuts, but nutmeg was a fragrant spice worth as much as silver or gold in Catherine's time.

Answer: Humpty Dumpty

It was Humpty Dumpty, of course, and we know from the famous picture in the "Alice" stories of Lewis Carroll that he was an egg. But this may be only part of the story. People who study nursery rhymes say that "Humpty Dumpty" was a nickname for anyone or anything that was big and round, and they think the nursery rhyme refers to a big cannon, belonging to the king's side, that was blasted off a castle wall during the English Civil War in July of 1648.