“Little Miss Muffet”
Description
"Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider And sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away."
Notes
This is probably only a nursery *rhyme*, and not a nursery *song*, and so properly does not belong in the Index. But Tony and Irene Saletan recorded it as part of their version of "Hail to Britannia" (which includes many nursery rhymes), so it does have a musical tradition of sorts. I include it, very tentatively, on that basis.
The Baring-Goulds state, incidentally, that this is the most frequently illustrated of all nursery rhymes, even though (according to them) the word"tuffet" is otherwise unattested. - RBW
References
- Opie-Oxford2 369, "Little Miss Muffet" (1 text)
- Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #141, p. 114, "(Little Miss Muffet)"
- BI, BGMG141