Editing Nursery rhyme (section)

==History==
===Lullabies===
{{Main|Lullaby}}
The oldest children's songs for which records exist are lullabies, intended to help a child fall asleep. Lullabies can be found in every human culture.<ref name=Opie6>{{harvnb|Opie|Opie|1997|p=6}}</ref> The English term lullaby is thought to come from "lu, lu" or "la la" sounds made by mothers or nurses to calm children, and "{{Not a typo|by by}}" or "bye bye", either another lulling sound or a term for a good night.<ref name="M. Prichard, 1984 p. 326">{{harvnb|Carpenter|Prichard|1984|p=326}}</ref> Until the modern era, lullabies were usually recorded only incidentally in written sources. The Roman nurses' lullaby, "Lalla, Lalla, Lalla, aut dormi, aut lacta", is recorded in a [[scholium]] on [[Persius]] and may be the oldest to survive.<ref name=Opie6 />

Many medieval English verses associated with the birth of [[Jesus]] take the form of a lullaby, including "Lullay, my liking, my dere son, my sweting" and may be versions of contemporary lullabies.<ref name="M. Prichard, 1984 p. 326" /> However, most of those used today date from the 17th century. For example, a well-known lullaby such as "[[Rock-a-bye Baby]]", could not be found in records until the late-18th century when it was printed by [[John Newbery]] (c. 1765).<ref name="M. Prichard, 1984 p. 326" />

===Early nursery rhymes===
[[File:Three Blinde Mice three voice round Deuteromelia 13 (1609).png|thumb|upright=1.3|"[[Three Blinde Mice]]" (1609), published by [[Thomas Ravenscroft]]<ref>Thomas Ravenscroft., ''Deuteromelia or The Seconde part of Musicks melodie, or melodius Musicke. Of Pleasant Roundalaies;'' Printed for Thomas Adams (1609). "Rounds or Catches of 3 Voices, #13" ([https://archive.org/stream/pammeliadeutrome12rave#page/n95/mode/2up Online version])</ref>]]
A French poem, similar to "Thirty days hath September", numbering the days of the month, was recorded in the 13th century.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/422709/nursery-rhyme "Nursery Rhyme"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', retrieved 20 September 2013.</ref> From the later Middle Ages, there are records of short children's rhyming songs, often as [[marginalia]].<ref>S. Lerer, ''Children's Literature: a Reader's History, from Aesop to Harry Potter'' (University of Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 69–70.</ref> From the mid-16th century, they began to be recorded in English plays.<ref name="Fox">A. Fox, ''Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500–1700'' ([[Oxford University Press]], 2000), p. 202.</ref> "[[Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man|Pat-a-cake]]" is one of the oldest surviving English nursery rhymes. The earliest recorded version of the rhyme appears in [[Thomas d'Urfey]]'s play ''The Campaigners'' from 1698. Most nursery rhymes were not written down until the 18th century when the publishing of children's books began to move from polemic and education towards entertainment, but there is evidence for many rhymes existing before this, including "[[To market, to market]]" and "[[Cock a doodle doo]]", which date from at least the late 16th century.{{sfn|Opie|Opie|1997|pp=30–31, 47–48, 128–129, 299}} Nursery rhymes with 17th-century origins include, "[[Jack Sprat]]" (1639), "[[The Grand Old Duke of York]]" (1642), "[[Lavender's Blue]]" (1672) and "[[Rain Rain Go Away]]" (1687).{{sfn|Opie|Opie|1997|p=360}}

[[File:StClementsDanes.ogg|thumb|left|"[[Oranges and Lemons]]" (1744) is set to the tune of the bells of [[St Clement Danes]], an Anglican church in the City of [[Westminster]], London.]]
The first English collection, ''[[Tommy Thumb's Song Book]]'' and a sequel, ''[[Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book]]'', were published by [[Mary Cooper (publisher)|Mary Cooper]] in London in 1744, with such songs becoming known as "Tommy Thumb's songs".<ref>{{cite news |last=Grenby |first=M O |title=The origins of children's literature |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |access-date=18 January 2020 |agency=British Library |date=15 May 2014}}</ref>{{sfn|Carpenter|Prichard|1984|pp=382–83}} A copy of the latter is held in the [[British Library]].<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1365141/News-in-brief.html "Rhyme book fetches £45,500"]. 13 December 2001, ''The Telegraph'', Retrieved 24 September 2019.</ref> [[John Newbery]]'s stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, ''[[Mother Goose]]'s Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle'' (London, 1780).<ref name="Bullen">A. H. Bullen's 1904 facsimile of Newbery's 1791 edition of ''Mother Goose's Melody'' ([https://archive.org/details/mothergoosesmelo00pridiala on-line])</ref>{{sfn|Carpenter|Prichard|1984|pp=363–64}} These rhymes seem to have come from a variety of sources, including traditional [[riddles]], [[proverb]]s, [[ballads]], lines of [[Mummers' play|Mummers]]' plays, drinking songs, historical events, and, it has been suggested, ancient pagan rituals.<ref name="M. Prichard, 1984 p. 383" /> One example of a nursery rhyme in the form of a riddle is "[[As I was going to St Ives]]", which dates to 1730.<ref>I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 376–77.</ref> About half of the currently recognised "traditional" English rhymes were known by the mid-18th century.<ref name=Opie1951 /> More English rhymes were collected by [[Joseph Ritson]] in ''[[Gammer Gurton's Garland]] or The Nursery Parnassus'' (1784), published in London by [[Joseph Johnson (publisher)|Joseph Johnson]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Gammer G's Garland |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/gammer-gs-garland |access-date=3 January 2022 |agency=British Library}}</ref>

===19th century===
[[File:Aa.vv., popular nursery tales and rhymes, warner & routledge, londra 1859 ca. (gabinetto vieusseux).JPG|thumb|''Popular Nursery Tales and Rhymes'', Warner & Routledge, London, {{Circa|1859}}]]
[[File:Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - sung with full lyrics.ogg|thumb|A person singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"]]

In the early 19th century, printed collections of rhymes began to spread to other countries, including [[Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802)|Robert Chambers]]' ''Popular Rhymes of Scotland'' (1826) and in the United States, ''Mother Goose's Melodies'' (1833).<ref name="M. Prichard, 1984 p. 383" /> From this period, the origins and authors of rhymes are sometimes known—for instance, in "[[Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star]]" which combines the melody of an 18th-century French tune "[[Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star#French "nursery rhyme" version|Ah vous dirai-je, Maman]]" with a 19th-century English poem by [[Jane Taylor (poet)|Jane Taylor]] entitled "The Star" used as lyrics.<ref>Paula R. Feldman, ed: ''British women poets of the Romantic era: an anthology'' (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), p. 712. {{ISBN|080185430X}}</ref>

Early folk song collectors also often collected (what is now known as) nursery rhymes, including in Scotland [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott]] and in Germany [[Clemens Brentano]] and [[Achim von Arnim]] in ''[[Des Knaben Wunderhorn]]'' (1806–1808).{{sfn|Carpenter|Prichard|1984|p=384}} The first, and possibly the most important academic collection to focus in this area was [[James Halliwell-Phillipps]]' ''The Nursery Rhymes of England'' (1842) and ''Popular Rhymes and Tales'' in 1849, in which he divided rhymes into antiquities (historical), fireside stories, game-rhymes, alphabet-rhymes, riddles, nature-rhymes, places and families, proverbs, superstitions, customs, and nursery songs (lullabies).<ref>R. M. Dorson, ''The British Folklorists: a History'' (Taylor & Francis, 1999), p. 67.</ref> By the time of [[Sabine Baring-Gould]]'s ''A Book of Nursery Songs'' (1895), folklore was an academic study full of comments and footnotes. A professional anthropologist, [[Andrew Lang]] (1844–1912) produced ''The Nursery Rhyme Book'' in 1897.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lang |first1=Andrew |title=The Nursery Rhyme Book: Volume 1 |date=1897 |publisher=hansebooks |edition=2020 reprint}}</ref>

===20th century===
The early years of the 20th century are notable for the illustrations of children's books, including [[Randolph Caldecott]]'s ''Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book'' (1909) and [[Arthur Rackham]]'s ''Mother Goose'' (1913). The definitive study of English rhymes remains the work of [[Iona and Peter Opie]].<ref name=Opie1951 />