The famous rhyme about the woman who lived in a shoe and had more children than she knew what to do with. It is one of the best-known verses in the whole Mother Goose collection, though its ending is sterner than most modern bedtime stories.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread.
She whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
About this rhyme
First printed in the 1790s
This was first printed in the 1790s, in a collection with the wonderful name Gammer Gurton's Garland. People have long guessed the old woman was really a queen worn out by too many children. Queen Caroline, wife of George the Second, is one name that comes up. There is nothing solid behind it. The shoe and the crowd of children are most likely just what they sound like. The whipping line is old and harsh, and plenty of modern retellings soften it or leave it out.
Say it briskly, like a piece of gossip passed over the fence. Hold up one hand for the shoe and wiggle all your fingers for the many children. Older children often notice the ending is unkind. That is a fair thing to talk about, and a nice moment to invent a kinder last line together.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition