Editing Oranges and Lemons (section)

==Origins and meaning==
[[File:Oranges&LemonsOTMG1833.jpg|thumb|210px|Illustration for the rhyme from ''The Only True Mother Goose Melodies'' (1833)]]
Various theories have been advanced to account for the rhyme, including: that it deals with child [[sacrifice]]; that it describes [[public execution]]s; that it describes [[Henry VIII]]'s marital difficulties.<ref name=Opie1997/> Problematically for these theories the last two lines, with their different metre, do not appear in the earlier recorded versions of the rhyme, including the first printed in ''[[Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book]]'' (c. 1744), where the lyrics are:

<blockquote><poem>Two Sticks and Apple,
Ring [[Thorn (letter)#Abbreviations|y<sup>e</sup>]] Bells at [[Whitechapel|Whitechapple]],
Old Father Bald Pate,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> Bells Aldgate,
Maids in White Aprons,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> Bells a [[St Katharine Cree|S<sup>t.</sup> Catherines]],
Oranges and Lemons,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> bells at S<sup>t.</sup> Clements,
When will you pay me,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> Bells at y<sup>e</sup> Old Bailey,
When I am Rich,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> Bells at [[St Pancras Old Church|Fleetditch]],
When will that be,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> Bells at Stepney,
When I am Old,
Ring y<sup>e</sup> Bells at [[St Paul's Cathedral|Pauls]].<ref name=Opie1997/></poem></blockquote>

There is considerable variation in the churches and lines attached to them in versions printed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which makes any overall meaning difficult to establish. The final two lines of the modern version were first collected by [[James Orchard Halliwell]] in the 1840s.<ref name=Opie1997/>

"Oranges and Lemons" was the title of a [[square dance]], published from the third (1657) edition onwards of ''[[The Dancing Master]]''.<ref>[http://playforddances.com/dances/oranges-and-lemons ''Playford’s Dancing Master: The Compleat Dance Guide'']. playforddances.com.</ref> Similar rhymes naming churches and giving rhymes to their names can be found in other parts of England, including Shropshire and Derby, where they were sung on festival days on which bells would also have been rung.<ref name=Opie1997/>

The identity of the London churches is not always clear, but the following have been suggested, along with some factors that may have influenced the accompanying statements:<ref name=Opie1997/>
*St. Clement's may be [[St Clement Danes]] or [[St Clement Eastcheap]], both of which are near the wharves where merchantmen landed citrus fruits.
*St. Martin's may be [[St Martin Orgar]] in the City, or [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]] near Trafalgar Square.
*[[St Sepulchre-without-Newgate]] (opposite the [[Old Bailey]]) is near the [[Fleet Prison]] where debtors were held.
*[[St Leonard's, Shoreditch]] is just outside the old City walls.
*[[St Dunstan's, Stepney]] is also outside the City walls.
*Bow is [[St Mary-le-Bow]] in [[Cheapside]].
*St. Helen's, in the longer version of the song, is [[St Helen's Bishopsgate]], in the City.
*"Whitechapple" may refer to [[St Mary Matfelon|St Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel]], or to the [[Whitechapel Bell Foundry]] which began making bells in 1570. "Two sticks and an apple" may refer to [[handbell]]s.
*St. Catherine's is most likely [[St Katharine Cree]], Aldgate. "Maids in white aprons" could be local market-sellers.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://inspiringcity.com/2013/04/07/the-meaning-of-the-oranges-and-lemons-nursery-rhyme/|title=The Meaning of the Oranges and Lemons Nursery Rhyme|date=7 April 2013|website=Inspiring City}}</ref>
*St. Margaret's is [[St Margaret Lothbury]].
*St. Giles' is [[St Giles Cripplegate]].
*St. Peter's is [[St Peter upon Cornhill]]. "[[Pancake]]s and [[fritter]]s" may refer to foods sold nearby, as it was a grain market.
*"Fleetditch" is [[St Pancras Old Church]], located near the [[River Fleet]].
*St. John's is [[St John's Chapel, London|St John's Chapel]] in the [[Tower of London]]; "pokers and tongs" may allude to instruments of [[torture]] used on prisoners. It could also be [[St John Clerkenwell]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ypInAQAAIAAJ&q=%22pokers+and+tongs%22+%22St+John+Clerkenwell%22|title=The Annotated Mother Goose, Nursery Rhymes Old and New, Arr. and Explained by William S. Baring-Gould & Ceil Baring-Gould|date=5 December 1962|publisher=C. N. Potter|isbn=9780517029596 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
*St. Anne's is [[St Anne and St Agnes]] near the Barbican. "Kettles and pans" may refer to nearby [[coppersmith]]s.
*"Aldgate" is [[St Botolph's Aldgate]], while "old father baldpate" refers to the monk [[Botolph of Thorney|Saint Botolph]]. It may also be an allusion to the [[glans penis]], as St Botolph's was notorious for being a meeting-place for [[prostitutes]].<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jcLNtJqZNvwC&dq=Botolphs+Aldgate+baldpate+prostitute&pg=PA93|title=The Secret History of Nursery Rhymes|first=Linda Kathryn|last=Alchin|date=5 December 2010|publisher=Linda Alchin|isbn=9780956748621 |via=Google Books}}</ref>