Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 01:05 PM

the = "they"? Maybe Joe will fix the typos?

Is it crammed into the same tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,judy
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 12:32 AM

This is a "college" version my mother taught me in the early 1980's:


Triple rodents with defective eyesight
Triple rodents with defective eyesight
Perceive how they perambulate
Perceive how they perambulate

They all scurried to an agricultural spouse
Who amputated their rear anatomy with a carving utensil
Have you ever perceived such a spectacle in all your entire existence as
Triple rodents with defective eyesight

Not sure where it originally came from, but I really like it.

Judy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jan 04 - 09:24 AM

Oh, Charley! LMAO! My cats say, "In yer dreams, mice/rats!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 09:06 PM

Here are three of our mice but they are not blind:Click Here!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 05:18 PM

Always so much to learn on the Mudcat. LOVE the link to the Corbould book, thanks! The whole version is so much better than just the little snippet we learned as children, not so gruesome, too!

Wonderful thread!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 05:11 PM

Jim - thanks for the link to the Corbould book - a must for my granddaughter. Suspect I also heard it on Prairie Home Companion, that and Mary Cliff's Traditions were what I transcribed most.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: fogie
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 06:02 AM

Tres mures, tres mures
ecce currunt ecce currunt,
sequunter agricolae feminam
caudas ea desecuit cultro?
mirabile spectaculum visu
trium murium.
Well I dont really remember the latin so it's probably very bastardised, but you get the picture. I loved the illustrations link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jan 04 - 05:22 PM

I was fascinated in the link above to "Three Blind Mice Round" which has a similar verse to one we used to sing in college in the early 1960's:

THREE BLIND MICE ARE DEAD (round)

Three blind mice are dead
Three blind mice are dead
See how they lie
See how they lie
Cold grey bodies on the slab
Cold grey bodies on the slab
Poor dead mice
Poor dead mice.

The song I knew was called "Beetles Don't Decay" and ran:

Beetles don't decay,
Beetles don't decay,
Beetles don't decay, my love,
Beetles don't decay.

Tie a ribbon blue,
Tie a ribbon red,
Tie a ribbon black, my love,
Because my beetle's dead.

Three blind mice are dead,
Three blind mice are dead,
See how they lie,
See how they lie,
Cold grey bodies on the slab,
See how they lie.

Virgins don't resist,
Virgins don't resist,
Virgins don't resist, my love,
When they're chloroformed.

Chloroform they down,
Chloroform them down,
Cloroform them down,
So they can't resist.

Amazing how we amused ourselves back in the dark ages!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: treaties1
Date: 10 Jan 04 - 08:08 PM

A brilliant thread and 2 great links, thank you all

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Blind Mice
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Jan 04 - 12:22 AM

I found the author of the text that Cetmst posted above. It's John W. Ivimey, born 1868. The Library of Congress has 5 different editions, made by 4 different illustrators. The title also varies:

Complete Version of ye Three Blind Mice ... illustrated by Walton Corbould. 1904

Complete Story of the Three Blind Mice ... illustrated by Paul Galdone. 1987

Complete Story of the Three Blind Mice ... illustrated by Victoria Chess. 1990

Three Blind Mice: The Classic Nursery Rhyme ... illustrated by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. 1991

Three Blind Mice: The Whole Story ... illustrated by Walton Corbould. 1995

Complete images of the original Corbould version can be seen at the Internet Archive (PDF).

Jonathan Edwards recorded it on his album "Little Hands" in 1987. You can hear it on Spotify or YouTube.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 07:04 PM

Brilliant! I too have heard that song on the radio. I can't remember who did it (if I ever knew) but I seem to recall two male voices in harmony, a cappella. Could it have been on A Prairie Home Companion?

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 02:24 PM

cetmst, thank you! That answers that question.:-) Well done.

okthen, I've marked it as a new LYR ADD, so it will be harvested as they work through the postings.

Thanks, again,

kat

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: okthen
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 01:40 PM

Thanks cetmst, that's truly amazing and exactly what this place is all about, can someone add this to the digitrad?

Subject: Lyr Add: THREE BLIND MICE (from Jonathan Edwards)
From: cetmst
Date: 06 Jan 04 - 08:04 AM

Three small mice, three small mice,
They pined for some fun, they pined for some fun.
They made up their minds to set out to roam,
Said they, "Too dull to remain at home"
And all the luggage they took was a comb,
Three small mice, three small mice.

Three bold mice, three bold mice,
They came to an inn, they came to an inn.
Good evening good host can you give us a bed ?
The host he grinned and shook his head
So they all slept out in a field instead,
Three bold mice, three bold mice.

Three cold mice, three cold mice,
They woke up next morn, they woke up next morn.
They each had a cold and a swollen face
From sleeping all night in an open space;
They rose quite early and left the place.
Three cold mice, three cold mice.

Three hungry mice, three hungry mice,
They searched for some food, they searched for some food.
But all they found was a walnut shell
That lay by the side of a dried-up well;
Who had eaten the nut they could not tell,
Three hungry mice, three hungry mice.

Three starved mice, three starved mice,
They came to a farm, they came to a farm.
The farmer was eating some bread and cheese,
So they all went down on their hands and knees,
Said "Oh give us a morsel please".
Three starved mice, three starved mice.

Three glad mice, three glad mice,
They ate all they could, they ate all they could.
They felt so happy they danced with glee
But the farmer's wife came out to see
What might their merrymaking be.
Three glad mice, three glad mice.

Three poor mice, three poor mice,
They soon changed their tune, they soon changed their tune.
The farmer's wife said what are you at,
And why are you dancing around like that ?
Just wait a minute I'll fetch the cat.
Three poor mice, three poor mice.

Three scared mice, three scared mice,
They ran for their lives, they ran for their lives.
They jumped out on the window ledge,
The mention of cats put their teeth on edge
So they hid themselves in a bramble hedge.
Three scared mice, three scared mice.

Three sad mice, three sad mice,
What could they do, what could they do ?
The bramble hedge was most unkind,
It scratched their eyes and made them blind
And soon each mouse went out of his mind.
Three sad mice, three sad mice.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run, see how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life
As three blind mice, three blind mice.

Three sick mice, three sick mice.
They gave way to tears, they gave way to tears.
They could not see and they had no end
So they went to the doctor and found a friend
Who gave them some Never-Too-Late-To-Mend.
Three sick mice, three sick mice.

Three wise mice, three wise mice,
Rubbed rubbed away, rubbed rubbed away.
And soon their tails began to grow
And their eyes recovered their sight, you know.
They looked in the mirror, it told them so.
Three wise ice, three wise mice.

Three proud mice, three proud mice,
They soon settled down, they soon settled down.
The name of their house I cannot tell,
But they've learned a trade and they're doing well.
If you pay them a visit, just ring the bell,
Three times twice, three times twice.

Transcribed from a radio program, do not know the source. [It was probably Jonathan Edwards, from his album "Little Hands".--A mudelf.]

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,pavane
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 08:20 AM

I don't know that we should dismiss druidic connections totally. The true (historical) druids were Celtic, were given a bad press and wiped out by the Romans and therefore not too far back in time.

Their language was presumably closely related to Welsh (rather than the Q-celtic of Ireland), and Westmorland could have been in the right area to have a similar dialect.

(The modern druids have no connection, of course)

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: Cool Beans
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 11:05 AM

Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the U.S., contemplates the subject in a most wonderful poem whose title is its first line:
"I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey's Version of 'Three Blind Mice'/
And I start wondering how they came to be blind/...

It's in Collins' collection "Sailing Alone Around the Room"
Highly recommend the book and the poem.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 09:39 AM

Hickory Dickory Dock (and other similar forms) was used as a children's counting-out rhyme in the North of England and Scotland. The suggestion that there is a basis in shepherds' telling-numbers (Hevera, Devera, Dick, for example, in Westmorland) seems perfectly reasonable, as these were still in common use when the rhyme began to be noticed (first publication seems to have been in Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, c.1744). See Opie, Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, no. 217.

I think that we can safely leave those pesky druids out of it, though.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,pavane
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:37 AM

It has been suggested that Hickory Dickory Dock were the druidic (Celtic) words for Eight Nine Ten.

It may seem fanciful until we look at the documented survival of forms of Celtic counting in shepherds songs in England (There is a thread on this) e.g. Yan Tan Tethera Pethera

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 11:29 PM

Then there's the nursery rhyme, probably unrelated:

Hickory Dickery Dock,
Three mice ran up the clock,
The clock struck one
and two escaped with minor injuries.

On a more serious note, I've heard semi-plausible cases made for supposed ancient meanings embedded in some of these songs, but given a little time to think about it, they just don't feel right. Like the London Bridge song. I heard a case made for it on the History Channel the other night, but he was just repeating what he'd been told, they didn't actually provide photos or sketches or early print documents to somehow bolster the story.

SRS

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 04:09 PM

The song is quite old, but those interpretations of it are quite modern and seem to have no foundation at all. A form of Three Blind Mice appeared in Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia of 1609, but it wasn't any longer then than it is today:

Three blinde mice

---

For the sake of completeness, here is the Ravenscroft text.
-Joe Offer-

Three Blinde Mice,
three Blinde Mice,
Dame Iulian,
Dame Iulian,
The Miller and his merry olde Wife,
shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 04:09 PM

In the 1620 version it was a miller and his wife - and "she carved their bones without a knife"

three blind mice
three blind mice
the miller and his jolly old wife
she carved their bones without a knife
three blind mice
three blind mice

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 04:06 PM

The song was more suitable for Moe, Larry, and Curly rather than Moe, Larry, and Shemp, don't you agree?

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: Ed.
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 04:00 PM

According to a number of websites:

"the words to the Three blind mice rhyme are based in English history. The 'farmer's wife' refers to the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I. Mary was a staunch Catholic and her violent persecution of Protestants led to the nickname of 'Bloody Mary'. The reference to 'farmer's wife' in Three blind mice refers to the massive estates which she, and her husband King Philip of Spain, possessed. The 'three blind mice' were three noblemen who adhered to the Protestant faith who were convicted of plotting against the Queen."

I would however suggest that this fanciful nonsense, similar to the idea of "Ring a ring of roses" being about the black death.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 03:56 PM

sorry - forgot I had no cookie

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 03:47 PM

According to a tape I got at Plymouth Plantations (who are VERY serious about their authenticity) it dates back at least as far as 1620 . The tune they used was slightly different - and it origannaly appears to have been a murder ballad.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 03:33 PM

This song was used as the theme song for all of The Three Stooges films.

Definately a very serious folk music topic.

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From: GUEST,katlaughing sans cookie
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 03:31 PM

Anyone know why the mice were visually impaired?

Subject: RE: Three Blind Mice
From:
Date: 28 Dec 96 - 01:15 AM

I have no idea about a ballad rendition of Three Blind Mice, but I have put together a version of a tongue twister rendition I once heard. Have fun getting all the syllables into the music if you try it.

Three small rodents with optical deficiencies,

Three small rodents with optical deficiencies,

Observe how they perambulate,

Observe how they perambulate!

They all hastened after the agriculturist's spouse.

She severed their posterior appendages with a chef's chopping implement.

Have ever you audited such an account in your existence

As three small rodents with optical deficiencies?

Allinkausay,

Bill

Subject: Three Blind Mice
From:
Date: 27 Dec 96 - 10:13 PM

Friends were telling me about a much longer, veritable ballad rendition of this song. Anyone got words to it out there?