A neat four-line rhyme about disliking someone for reasons that can't quite be put into words, adapted from a much older Latin epigram. A gentle way to show that feelings don't always need an explanation.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell;
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell!
About this rhyme
John Fell was Dean of Christ Church, Oxford from 1660 (and Bishop of Oxford from 1676), so 'Dean of Christ Church' and 'seventeenth century' both check out. · The Martial-epigram translation story is the standard, widely cited account of this rhyme's origin, not presented here with more certainty than that tradition supports.
This one has real history behind it. It's a student's on-the-spot translation of a Latin epigram, aimed at the actual Dean of Christ Church, John Fell, in the seventeenth century. The argument is long forgotten; what survives is a neat way of naming a feeling everyone knows, disliking someone for no reason you can give.
Say it with a shrug rather than a scowl. That's closer to the joke.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition