Pease Porridge Hot
| "Pease Porridge Hot" | |
|---|---|
 Music from The Song Play Book.[1] | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Written | Traditional |
| Published | c. 1760 |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
| Composer(s) | Kids Song |
| Lyricist(s) | Traditional |
"Pease Porridge Hot" or "Pease Pudding Hot" is an English children's singing game and nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19631.[2]
Lyrics
[edit]The lyrics to the rhyme are:
- Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,
- Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;
- Some like it hot, some like it cold,
- Some like it in the pot, nine days old.[3][4]
Origin
[edit]The origins of this rhyme are unknown. The name refers to a type of porridge made from peas. Today it is known as pease pudding, and was also known in Middle English as pease pottage. ("Pease" was treated as a mass noun, similar to "oatmeal", and the singular "pea" and plural "peas" arose by back-formation.)
The earliest recorded version of "Pease Porridge Hot" is a riddle found in John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1760):[3]
- Pease Porridge hot,
- Pease Porridge cold,
- Pease Porridge in the Pot
- Nine Days old,
- Spell me that in four Letters?
- I will, THAT.[5]
Where the terms "pease pudding" and "pease pottage" are used, the lyrics of the rhyme are altered accordingly.
Game
[edit]
Schoolchildren often play Pease Porridge Hot by pairing off and clapping their hands together to the rhyme as follows:
- Pease (clap both hands to thighs) porridge (clap own hands together) hot (clap partner's hands),
- pease (clap both hands to thighs) porridge (clap own hands together) cold (clap partner's hands),
- Pease (clap thighs) porridge (clap own hands) in the (clap right hands only) pot (clap own hands),
- nine (clap left hands only) days (clap own hands) old (clap partner's hands).
- (Repeat actions for second stanza)[1]
NOTE: The actions are performed during recitation of the word or phrase, not following.
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b Wollaston, The Song Play Book, p. 37.
- ^ "Roud Folksong Index S316090 Pease-porridge hot, pease-porridge cold". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ a b I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 345.
- ^ Notes and queries – Google Books
- ^ Whitmore, The Original Mother Goose's Melody, No. 41.
- ^ Miller, In the Nursery of My Bookhouse, p. 5.
References
[edit]- William Francis Prideaux (1840–1914). (1904) Mother Goose's melody
- Miller, Olive Beaupré. In the Nursery of My Bookhouse. Chicago: The Book House for Children Publishers (1920).
- Whitmore, William H. The Original Mother Goose's Melody, as First Issued by John Newbery, of London, About A.D., 1760. Albany: Joel Munsell's Sons (1889).
- Wollaston, Mary A. (compiler). The Song Play Book: Singing Games for Children. New York: A.S. Barnes and Company (1922).
