Ask anyone on the street what Lizzie Borden did, and they'll probably recite the rhyme:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
gave her mother forty whacks
when she saw what she had done
gave her father forty-one
In 1892, Lizzie Borden's parents were found hacked to death in their home. The rhyme fudges details a bit, as one might expect: the murders were committed with a hatched, neither received quite that many whacks, and Borden herself may not have done it at all! In fact, the jury acquitted her in about an hour and a half. No murder weapon was found. But historians remain divided over whether she was really the killer or not to this day. The "real" killer was never found. See the wiki for more
As to the rhyme itself, it's sometimes said that it was written by a newspaperman at the time of the 1893 trial. I can't find the rhyme in any paper from before the 1920s, or in print at all before 1907, but I wouldn't doubt that it's from the trial era. Some also say that Theodore Roosevelt got a real kick out of the rhyme, though no one seems to have a good source on that (besides the fact that he appointed William Moody, one of the prosecutors in the trial, to the office of Attorney General).
you guys are nuts
ReplyDeletetyuiuywqweiowqwerlrertyuioprewertyuirewertyixecrtvbgyhnuijmko,lZXDCFGVBHNJKML,ZSXDCFVGBHNJM
ReplyDeleteAbout age three in San Antonio, Texas (in 1937) the older kids were jumping rope and singing the ballad. That is where I learned it.
ReplyDeleteAs a child in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I never taught it to my own daughter, though. I found it gruesome and innapropriate.
ReplyDeleteLizzie Borden took an axe
ReplyDeleteLiving Dead Dolls has a Lizzie Borden doll with that poem on the box. In fact they have one of the dolls at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast (they turned the Borden house into a B&B).
ReplyDeleteUnder the spreading chestnut tree,
ReplyDeleteThe village idiot sat.
Amusing himself by abusing himself,
And catching it in his hat.
First heard in Milwaukee, WI in the early 1970s.
I heard it while jumping rope on the playground (mid 1960's). Had no idea who Lizzie Borden was but thought the rhyme was funny. I knew better than to ask my parents, who would have thought the rhyme was inappropriate. In the 1970's I saw the TV movie about Lizzie, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, and finally learned the story behind "Forty Whacks."
ReplyDeleteNot exactly old, or playground related, but the first time I heard this rhyme was in Amanda Palmer's Ukulele Anthem. The section goes like this:
ReplyDelete"Lizzie Borden took and axe
and gave her mother forty whacks
and gave her father forty one
and left a tragic puzzle.
If only they had given her an instrument
those puritans
had lost the plot completely
see what happens when you muzzle
a person's creativity
and do not let them sing or scream
and nowadays it's worse 'cause kids have automatic handguns"
late 1990's early 2000's Duncan BC
ReplyDeleteLizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty one!
Occasionaly we switched mother and father around.
There is more to the rhyme!
ReplyDeleteLizzie Borden took an ax,
Gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.
Lizzie Borden got away,
For her crime she did not pay.
(I heard the rest from a book of scary stories on Wattpad in 2013.)