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Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

The Bloody Story Behind the Rhyme

Apr 26, 2007 Melissa Howard

Typically portrayed as a rather sweet girl in a lovely garden, the Mary of 'Mary, Mary Quite Contrary' was not nice. The rhyme is typically associated with Bloody Mary.

Mary, Mary quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maids all in a row.

How We See Mary Illustrated

The illustrations of Mary in her garden for the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary Quite Contrary are usually those of a cherubic maiden tripping down the path in a whimsical garden full of bells and seashells. Occasionally, one might find a rather disconcerting Victorian interpretation of the rhyme with the heads of maidens as the face of the flowers but that is as disturbing as this popular nursery rhyme gets in modern interpretation. However, Mary’s prototype was not so sweet.

About the Real Mary Behind the Rhyme

Because it is an English nursery rhyme, the most commonly accepted historical interpretation is that the rhyme refers to Mary Tudor (Mary I of England) also known as Bloody Mary. Mary was the daughter of Henry the VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her young life was full of upheaval and at one point, she was demoted from Princess to simply being ‘Lady Mary’ when her father separated with the Roman Catholic Church, became head of the Church of England, and demoted Catherine from her role as Queen, which in turn made Mary illegitimate. However, she did ultimately become Queen.

Mary’s first move, as queen, was to retroactively legalize the marriage between Henry and her mother and thus legitimize herself. Her second move was to find herself a Catholic husband so that she could provide herself with an heir and thus remove any opportunity for her Protestant sister Elizabeth from ascending the throne if she were to die.

Therefore, at the age of 37, Mary married a prince from Spain named Philip who later became Philip II. Eleven years her junior, Philip did not find Mary desirable; the marriage was simply a political move for him. Mary never succeeded in providing an heir for them. She had two false pregnancies and ultimately died from what appears to have been ovarian cancer.

A staunch Catholic, Mary tried to reverse the damage done by her father’s break with Rome. In her attempts to rid her country of Protestantism and restore Catholicism, Mary persecuted and murdered many Protestants.

Mary’s personal history and the nature of Catholicism lead to several distinct interpretations of the rhyme.

Line by Line Interpretation

One interpretation suggests that silver bells were Catholic cathedral bells, that the cockle shells were the symbol of pilgrimage to the Catholic Shrine of St James in Spain, and the pretty maids all in a row were Catholic nuns.

A second interpretation views the cockle shells as a lewd comment on her relationship with her disinterested husband, Philip II of Spain. The question How does your garden grow? was a scornful attack of her inability to produce an heir. And the pretty maids all in a row was a reference to her miscarriages.

A final interpretation goes to the heart of her persona as “Bloody Mary” with silver bells and cockle shells referring to instruments of torture: silver bells being thumbscrews and cockles shells being instruments of torture attached to the genitals. While the pretty maids would be a reference to early guillotine-type devices used to decapitate victims.

Alternate Interpretation

There are some arguments that the rhyme is really about Mary Queen of Scots a contemporary of Mary Tudor with a similar interpretation of the rhyme to the second one listed above. However, the historical data and the fact that this is an English rhyme supports the arguments for Mary Tudor.

To learn more about nobility in nursery rhymes, check out Hey Diddle, Diddle, and Ride a Cock Horse.

The copyright of the article Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary in Children’s Books is owned by Melissa Howard. Permission to republish Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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22 Comments

Comments

Jun 3, 2008 12:06 PM
Guest :
where can i find the disturbing version of the rhyme
Oct 22, 2008 7:49 PM
Guest :
To the guest who wishes to find "the disturbing version of the rhyme" ... just look in the mirror and you will have found it.
Oct 26, 2008 5:05 AM
Guest :
This peom is horrible, i have only just worked out what it means.... YUK !!!!!!!!!!
Nov 19, 2008 11:23 AM
Guest :
i wanted to no wat it was trasslated word for word????
Jan 4, 2009 6:15 AM
Guest :
All 'nursey rhymes' are disturbing! People actually recite these horrors to their kids.

"Rock-a-by baby, in the tree top,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
Down will come baby, cradle and all."

Why would anyone put a baby in a tree?
The cradle will rock when the wind blows and
the baby will fall to it's death
when the tree limb breaks!

This rhyme is talking about some sick person
killing their own baby! UGH
Jan 27, 2009 2:42 PM
Guest :
Wow!I never thought that a nursery rhyme would have such a bloody backround!I found this page to be very interesting and answered a lot of my questions.


sicerly,
an amazed reader
Jan 29, 2009 7:57 AM
Guest :
i sang those songs to my kids when they were babies and thought nothing of it until now that is .... i did know about ring a ring a rosy.
Feb 22, 2009 8:29 AM
Guest :
wow, this is rather violent for a childrens' nursery rhyme...
Mar 11, 2009 12:40 AM
Guest :
wow. i remember my mom reading and singing me this crap. i never up until about a year ago knew about these horrible backgrounds to these rhymes although i do find it very interesting, i think i'll stop reading.
Mar 15, 2009 4:24 PM
Guest :
never heard this rhyme
Mar 16, 2009 9:16 AM
Guest :
Many nursery rhymes composed throughout the ages are based on bad and sometimes unspeakabe events. There was essentially no so-called middle class and the "commoners" were mostly illiterate. The nursery rhymes were based upon the visual and spoken events of the day, many of which were not nice at all!
Mar 19, 2009 4:32 PM
Guest :
im doing a prodject about this oh and shes bloody mary
Mar 19, 2009 4:34 PM
Guest :
i sang mary mary quite contary at my school wait till they now this
Apr 10, 2009 9:07 AM
Guest :
quite disturbing. check out the meaning behind 3 blind mice and ring o round the rosy 2. pretty much all the nursery ryhmes parents tell their kids are sick if u think about them.
May 4, 2009 3:31 PM
Guest :
this is kind of sickening to think about... wait I'm going to barf pretty soon...
May 28, 2009 7:05 PM
Guest :
I LOL'D.
Jul 1, 2009 9:06 AM
Guest :
man that IS nasty!.... bla
Jul 13, 2009 12:57 AM
Guest :
this is a very old rhyume so i think it is from before bloody mary so they just changed the principle of the song and proppsed it to bloody mary.
Nov 30, 2009 11:44 AM
Guest :
'Ring-a-ring o' rosies' is pretty horrible aswell
Dec 9, 2009 10:32 AM
Guest :
I think it is amazing, however, my history teacher told her two differnt things??
Dec 9, 2009 10:41 AM
Guest :
IT WAS TO MARY BECAUSE OT STARTED WHEN EVERYONE ,LIKED THE NEW QUEEN(MARY)UNTIL SHE CHANGED THE CHURCH BACK TO IT OLD WAY(THANKZ TO EDWARD MARY LITTLE BROTHER) AND ANYONE WHO STOOD IN HER PATH SHE KILLED THAT WHERE THE NAME BLOODY MARY NAME COMES FROM :0
Dec 13, 2009 12:57 PM
Guest :
rock a bye baby was from the native americans who used to put their children in the tree branches and let them rock as the wind blew the branches and the baby would fall asleep. a tree probably fell on accident one day and the a ryhme came out of it.
22 Comments

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