Little Miss Muffet

For those who wonder, curds are are solidified milk fat produced by curdling milk, sort of like cottage cheese. Whey is the thin runny liquid left over after the curds have seperated. A tuffet, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (as discussed in the comic) was originally a small hill or mound, but has since come to mean a footstool as well, possibly because of confusion over what Miss Muffet was sitting on.

According to The Extradinary Origins of Everyday Things (see resources) it was written in the sixteenth century by an entomologist (that's a person who stuides insects) whose last name was Muffet for his daughter. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes suggests this origin as well, although that book is less firmly convinced, as the rhyme is not found in print before 1805.

Incidentally, both of those books claim that Little Miss Muffet is the nursery rhyme most often included in children's anthologies, possibly because it lends itself to illustration. Which is not why I originally picked it, but it fits so perfectly into the story that I'll pretend it was. :-}

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Do you know something about this nursery rhyme that you would like to see shared? E-mail me at Falen_gingerbread at hotmail.com