| "Three Blind Mice" | |
|---|---|
 Illustration of "Three Blind Mice" byBeatrix Potter inCecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes (1922) | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | c. 1609 |
| Songwriter | Unknown |
"Three Blind Mice" is anEnglishnursery rhyme and musicalround.[1] It has aRoud Folk Song Index number of 3753.
The rhyme has a number of variants. This 1922 version is fromCecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes byBeatrix Potter:[2]
Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run!
They all run after the farmer's wife,
And she cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
As three blind mice!
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A version of this rhyme, together with music (in a minor key), was published inDeuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie (1609).[3] The editor of the book, and possible author of the rhyme,[4] wasThomas Ravenscroft.[1] The original lyrics are:
Three Blinde Mice,
Three Blinde Mice,
Dame Iulian,
Dame Iulian,
the Miller and his merry olde Wife,
shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.[1]
Attempts to read historical significance into the words[5] have led to the speculation that this musical round was written earlier and refers toQueen Mary I of England blinding and executing threeProtestant bishops.[6] However, theOxford Martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the stake, not blinded, although if the rhyme was made bycrypto-Catholics, the mice's "blindness" could refer to their Protestantism.[5] However, as can be seen above, the earliest lyrics don't talk about harming the three blind mice, and the first known date of publication is 1609, well after Queen Mary died.
The rhyme entered children's literature only in 1842 when it was published in a collection byJames Orchard Halliwell.[citation needed]
Amateur music composerThomas Oliphant (1799–1873)[7] noted in 1843 that:
This absurd old round is frequently brought to mind in the present day, from the circumstance of there being an instrumental Quartet by Weiss, through which runs a musical phrase accidentally the same as the notes applied to the wordThree Blind Mice. They form athird descending, C, B, A.[8]
Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana #7, which is arguably about a cat (Murr), appears to be based upon "Three Blind Mice", but in a predominantly minor key. "Three Blind Mice" is to be found in the fugue which is the centerpiece of #7.[citation needed]
Joseph Holbrooke (1878–1958) composed his Symphonic Variations, opus 37, based onThree Blind Mice.Joseph Haydn used its theme in the Finale (4th Mvt) of hisSymphony 83 (La Poule) (1785–86); one of the 6Paris Symphonies, and the music also appears in the final movement of English composerEric Coates' suiteThe Three Men. "Three Blind Mice" was used as a theme song forThe Three Stooges and aCurtis Fuller arrangement of the rhyme is featured on theArt Blakey live album of the same name. The song is also the basis forLeroy Anderson's 1947 orchestral "Fiddle Faddle".
The theme can be heard inAntonín Dvořák'sSymphony No. 9 IV. Allegro con fuoco[9] andManuel de Falla'sEl Paño Moruno.
The British composerHavergal Brian (1876–1972) used the tune as the basis of his orchestral work "Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme" (1907–08). The work was originally intended as the first movement of a satirical "Fantastic Symphony" (Symphony No.1), a programmatic work, based on the nursery rhyme. The second movement was intended as a scherzo for pizzicato strings, depicting the souls of the departed mice going to heaven and the third movement was a Lament for the dead mice. Both these movements are lost. "Festal Dance" (1908) formed the finale, depicting the wild dance of triumph of the farmer's wife in which passing references to the tune can be heard. Having been performed separately, the first and last movements became independent works around 1914.[10]
The theme of the second movement ofSergei Rachmaninoff'sPiano Concerto No. 4 (1926, revised 1928 and 1941) was criticized as resemblingThree Blind Mice.[11]
Acalypso version of the tune with new lyrics byMonty Norman was recorded byByron Lee and the Dragonaires for the filmDr. No, and is featured inits soundtrack as part of the track "Kingston Calypso".[12] The reworked rhyme alludes to the three black assassins whose deadly march through the streets ofKingston, Jamaica opens the film. Other Jamaican versions includedancehall artists, likeJosey Wales andBrigadier Jerry.
Published in 1904 byFrederick Warne & Co. in London, an illustrated children's book by John W. Ivimey entitledThe Complete Version of Ye Three Blind Mice, fleshes the mice out into mischievous characters who seek adventure, eventually being taken in by a farmer whose wife chases them from the house and into a bramble bush, which blinds them.[13] Soon after, their tails are removed by "the butcher's wife" when the complete version incorporates the original verse—although the earliest version from 1609 does not mention tails being cut off. The story ends with them using a tonic to grow new tails and recover their eyesight, learning a trade (making wood chips, according to the accompanying illustration), buying a house and living happily ever after.
The book is now in thepublic domain.[14][15]
In some North American sports such asbaseball andice hockey, the tune is associated withumpires andreferees, especially after making a call perceived to be poor or contentious.[16] Anorganist orDJ playing the tune at a sporting event can face sanctions, as for example when organist Derek Dye was ejected by the umpire from aDaytona Cubs baseball game in 2012 for doing so.[17]
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