A bit of history behind the three knaves of the nursery rhyme
If you already have your copy of our December issue, we hope you’ve enjoyed our front cover by Flora Waycott, featuring folk style illustrations of a very festive butcher, baker and candlestick maker; just some of the people who make Christmas happen.
But where do the three men in a tub (of Rub a Dub Dub fame) come from? Well, back in the 14th century, the rhyme referred to maids in a tub, rather than men, in what was a decidedly dodgy fairground attraction apparently, along the lines of a modern peep show! We think we’ll stick to the dodgems!
The rhyme went:
Hey! rub-a-dub, ho! rub-a-dub, three maids in a tub,
And who do you think were there?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker,
And all of them gone to the fair
It was an admonishment to respectable men of the town behaving in a dishonourable way. Plus ca change, eh? The phrase ‘rub a dub dub’ stood in for a piece of gossip or innuendo, like a 14th century ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink’.
But by the early 19th century the rhyme was appearing in books of nursery rhymes under a new and cleaner guise, though a reference to the butcher, baker and candlestick maker still being rather rakish is there:
Rub a dub dub,
Three fools in a tub,
And who do you think they be?
The butcher, the baker,
The candlestick maker.
Turn them out, knaves all three
If you’d like to read more about the knaves, our December issue is out now and in it you can meet a real-life (and much more wholesome) butcher, baker and candlestick maker.
Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
