Simple Simon (nursery rhyme)
Nursery rhyme From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Simple Simon" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19777.
"Simple Simon" | |
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![]() William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Simple Simon, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose | |
Nursery rhyme | |
Published | 1764 |
Songwriter(s) | Traditional |
Text

The rhyme is as follows;
- Simple Simon met a pieman,
- Going to the fair;
- Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
- Let me taste your ware.
- Said the pieman to Simple Simon,
- Show me first your penny;
- Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
- Sir I haven't any.
- Simple Simon went a-fishing,
- For to catch a whale;
- All the water he had got,
- Was in his mother's pail.
- Simple Simon went to look
- If plums grew on a thistle;
- He pricked his fingers very much,
- Which made poor Simon whistle.[1]
- He went for water in a sieve
- But soon it all fell through
- And now poor Simple Simon
- Bids you all adieu![2]
Origin
The verses used today are the first of a longer chapbook history first published in 1764.[1] The character of Simple Simon may have been in circulation much longer, possibly through an Elizabethan chapbook and in a ballad, Simple Simon's Misfortunes and his Wife Margery's Cruelty, from about 1685.[1] A possible inspiration is Simon Edy, a beggar of the St Giles area in the 18th century.[3]
Notes
External links
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