Introductory Context A study in contrasts
More Than He Bargained For! This spider is definitely
unhappy
Gentleman or Predator? Are his intentions honorable?
Cooling It Things may heat up soon
Help! How can she get away?
Is That a Tuffet? Where are these characters sitting?
How Do You Do? How nice of you to stop by
How Dramatic! Minor characters move in
Where’s Miss Muffet? This spider must settle
for flies
Like many nursery rhymes, there is some controversy and intrigue surrounding the possible hidden meanings of Little Miss Muffet, both symbolically and linguistically. The words and phrases in some Mother Goose rhymes have not changed although they are no longer used and seldom recognized by young people. This leaves them wide open for deciphering and interpreting. “Tuffet” is the classic example of such a word.
Perhaps Little Miss Muffet was the first “documented” person with arachnophobia. Or did she purposely spill her curds and whey because it was an unappetizing mixture of coagulated milk and watery cheese by-product? ( Montgomery, 2002.) When questioned about what happened, perhaps she blamed it on a spider to stay out of trouble. Maybe the curds and whey gave her a stomachache and the spider, believed to cure various ailments if swallowed, was there for medicinal purposes. Is Little Miss Muffet a symbol of sexual harassment or feminine stereotypes? Is this a simply a verse about a young girl eating a meal and being frightened by a bug? Or could these characters represent real people prominent in 16 th century England’s history?
Some believe Little Miss Muffet and the spider symbolize Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) and John Knox (1505-1572) a minister who wanted to scare her off the throne due to religious differences. Another story attributes the origin of this nursery rhyme to Dr. Thomas Muffet (1553-1604), an entomologist who wrote the first scientific catalogue of British native insects. It is believed the poem, Little Miss Muffet, was written for his stepdaughter Patience.
http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/culent/arach/ When people today hear the word, "Arachnophobia", they think of a preposterous Hollywood movie, but arachnophobia is a very real, serious problem for many people.
http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/4_class/45_pguides/pguide_905/4495_phobia.html A PBS website with sound teaching materials on spiders.
http://salticidae.org/jsotw.html
Jumping Spiders of the World. Various projects have the common goal
of presenting the diversity of jumping spiders (Salticidae) and their
systematic biology.
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/94.html
Little Miss Muffet in an interesting version!
http://www.editec.net/Little_Miss_Muffet/pages/01lmmCover.htm
Digitalized copy of the tale.
http://www.brookmans.com/history/littlemissmuffet.shtml
A version of history that adds a dimension to the tale.
Clark, Emma Chichester. Little Miss Muffet's Count-Along Surprise. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
Cousins, Lucy. Little Miss Muffet: And Other Nursery Rhymes. New York: Dutton, 1997. ["Originally published in Great Britain 1989 by Macmillan Children's Books, London."]
Gardner, Amanda. “ Experts Aim to Quell 'Miss Muffet' Effect” in Forbes.com http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/08/06/hscout520507.html
