Mary, Mary

What a coincidence. Last night, my wife was telling me about a seminar at her college in Calcutta (Kolkata) on the poet, William Blake, where a university professor speaking about poems like "Tyger, Tyger" touched upon nursery rhymes. They were similar in their apparent simplicity hiding a wealth of meaning, he said. And one of the nursery rhymes he cited was "Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?", which he said was believed to refer to Mary, Queen of Scots. I didn't know that, but we had other things to talk about, and after all we were talking long-distance -- she from Calcutta, I in Singapore. So, after hanging up the phone, I went to Answers.com. And, guess what, today is Mary's birthday.

She appears in Today's Highlights. Says Answers.com:

"Mary Stuart, aka Mary Queen of Scots, was born on this date in 1542. She was only six days old when her father, James V, died and she became Queen of Scotland. Mary, a Catholic, was accused of scheming to murder her husband and was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle in 1567. A year later, she escaped and fled to England. Elizabeth I initially provided refuge and then had Mary imprisoned when she was implicated in additional plotting, including a scheme to murder Elizabeth. Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587. When Elizabeth died, she was succeeded by Mary's son, James I of England."

Mary must have been laughing in her grave when the Virgin Queen was succeeded by her son. But her grandson, Charles I, was beheaded like her by the English -- oh perfidious Albion -- but his son, Charles II, returned to rule in 1660 after the regicide Oliver Cromwell's death. It must have been a bit like the swinging 1960s, marred by deadly crises such as the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London, but sexually quite liberated in fashionable circles. Not for nothing was Charles II called the Merry Monarch.

But back to

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockleshells
And pretty maids all in a row."

The Wikipedia is sceptical about any royal connection to the nursery rhyme. It says:

"Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired spurious historical explanations. One is that it refers to Mary I of Scotland, with "how does your garden grow" referring to how she was doing controlling the country, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockleshells" in inference that her husband cheated on her, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to all her babies that had died and that she buried them in rows. However, Mary Queen of Scots was accounted a great beauty. She was also not known for killing "rows and rows" of people, although her husband, Darnley, was mixed up in a murder, and her lover and third husband, Lord Bothwell, was thought to have arranged the murder of Darnley.

"Another is that it refers to Mary I of England and her unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.

"These explanations range; it is generally thought to be about Mary I for roughly the same reasons as her Scottish counterpart, as her husband Phillip II of Spain was barely interested in her (hence the word "cockleshells"), the "How does your garden grow?" being a mockery of her womb (and her inability to produce heirs) or the idea many had taken that England had became a Catholic vassal or "branch" of Spain and the Habsburgs. "Quite contrary" seems to be a reference to the way she unsuccessfully tried to undo what her father Henry VIII and brother Edward VI had done with the church. The "pretty maids all in a row" could be another reference to her miscarriages as with the other Mary or her execution of Lady Jane Grey after coming to the throne. "Rows and rows" is attributed to her infamous burnings and executions of Protestants.

"Alternatively, capitalising on the queen's portrayal by Whig historians as 'Bloody Mary', the "silver bells and cockle shells" referred to in the nursery rhyme could be colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' may refer to thumbscrews, while the 'cockleshells' are thought to have been instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals. Finally, 'maids' might be a reference to 'maidens' which were early guillotine-like devices used to sever heads."

"Still, some argue that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary I of Scotland (who were contemporaries) lived in the sixteenth century."

But even if the rhyme came about long after the two Marys, that doesn't it couldn't be about them. Think of all the historical romances or the films, Mary, Queen of Scots, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson, and Elizabeth, directed by the Indian Shekhar Kapur.

In fact, the Wikipedia article concludes:

"Some historians claim the song was invented by the Protestants and Anglicans any time during or long after to mock Mary I of England's unsuccessful reign, or even both Marys."

But if the rhyme is about Mary Queen of Scots or Mary I aka Bloody Mary, why should it be so cryptic if composed long after their death? They were dead, gone, not likely to imprison, pillory, burn or behead or whatever they did to their critics.

Who knows? Meanwhile, I am reminded of another Mary -- a Mary one can rock to, to the beat of the Monkees. So, here's a song I love -- Mary, Mary by the Monkees.