Oranges and Lemons

Rhyme as ‘Sountrack’ to Story

This illustration is unique among those examined; it illustrates only one stanza of the rhyme (“Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s”) and serves as part of a pictoral story about a peasant girl selling, rescuing, and then releasing her pet dove. The motifs which occur in other illustrations are also present here: a bell tower in the background and oranges and lemons somewhere in the illustration (here, being hawked by a fruit seller). Unlike other illustrations of this rhyme, the focus here is on the girl and her pet (interestingly, birds are seen in other illustrations of this rhyme as well, although never mentioned in the text). Although the violent ending of the rhyme isn’t alluded to directly in the illustration (or included in the accompanying text), the dark colors (brown, orange-brown, and black), combined with the resigned expressions on the characters’ faces, nonetheless create a dark mood.