There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"
Illustration by W. W. Denslow, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Nursery rhyme
Published	1794
Songwriter(s)	Unknown

"There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme, with a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19132. Debates over its meaning and origin have largely centered on attempts to match the old woman with historical female figures who have had large families, although King George II (1683–1760) has also been proposed as the rhyme's subject.

Lyrics[edit]

The most common version of the rhyme is:^[1]

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

The earliest printed version in Joseph Ritson's Gammer Gurton's Garland in 1794 has the coarser last line:

She whipp'd all their bums, and sent them to bed.^[2]

Many other variations were printed in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[1] Marjorie Ainsworth Decker published a Christian version of the rhyme in her The Christian Mother Goose Book published in 1978:

There was an old woman
Who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children,
And loved them all, too.
She said, "Thank you Lord Jesus,
For sending them bread."
Then kissed them all gladly
and sent them to bed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_was_an_Old_Woman_Who_Lived_in_a_Shoe