Little Robin Redbreast

‘Little Robin Redbreast’ is an English language nursery rhyme, chiefly notable as evidence of the way traditional rhymes are changed and edited. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20612.^[1]

"Little Robin Redbreast"
Nursery rhyme
Published	c. 1744
Songwriter(s)	Unknown

An illustration for the rhyme from The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (1833)

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Lyrics

This rhyme is one of the most varied English nursery rhymes, probably because of its crude early version. Common modern versions include:

Words	Fingerplay
Little Robin Redbreast Sat upon a rail; Niddle noddle went his head, Wiggle waggle went his tail.[2]	Right hand extended in shape of a bird poised on extended forefinger of left hand. Little finger of right hand waggles from side to side.

Little Robin Redbreast

Came to visit me;

This is what he whistled,

Thank you for my tea.^[2]

and:

Little Robin Redbreast

Sat upon a tree,

Up went the Pussy-Cat,

And down went he;

Down came Pussy-Cat,

Away Robin ran,

Says little Robin Redbreast—

Catch me if you can.

Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall,

Pussy-Cat jumped after him, and almost got a fall.

Little Robin chirped and sung, and what did pussy say?

Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robin jumped away.^[3]

Origins

The earliest versions of this rhyme reveal a more basic humour. The earliest recorded is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has the lyric:

Little Robin Red breast,

Sitting on a pole,

Nidde, Noddle, Went his head.

And poop^[4] went his Hole.^[2]

By the late eighteenth century the last line was being rendered 'And wag went his tail,' and other variations were used in nineteenth-century children's books, in one of the clearest cases of bowdlerisation in nursery rhymes.^[2]

Fingerplay

The rhyme has been used as a fingerplay. A version from 1920 included instructions with the lyrics:

Little Robin Redbreast

Sat upon a rail,

(Right hand extended in shape of a bird is poised on extended forefinger of left hand.)

Niddle noddle went his head,

And waggle went his tail.

(Little finger of right hand waggles from side to side.)^[5]

Notes

1. "Roud Folksong Index S303787 Little Robin Redbreast came to visit me". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
2. I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 371-2.
3. Anon, The Only True Mother Goose Melodies (Munroe and Francis: Boston MA, 1833), p. 14.
4. the meaning of this word subsequently changed, towards the start of the 20th century
5. W. B. Forbush, H. T. Wade, W. J. Baltzell, R. Johnson, and D. E. Wheeler, ed., Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (New York, NY: University Society, 1920), p. 10.