(Pick A Letter to Choose a Rhyme!)

 

•  MP3 Recording of There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

Notes

Here's a slightly different version from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith:

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 around, and sent them to bed.

William Wallace Denslow gives a kinder version of this rhyme in his book Denslow's Mother Goose (1901):

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 with plenty of bread,
She kissed them all fondly and sent them to bed.

I believe Denslow made this version up himself: I couldn't find any reference to it in other sources and his book also gives a less scary version of Hush-a-bye Baby on the Tree Top.

Photos & Illustrations

Thanks and Acknowledgements

The 1st illustration comes from My First Picture Book illustrated by Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896), believed to have been published around 1875. The 2nd illustration comes from The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897). The 1st version of this rhyme can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright. The 3rd illustration is from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. The 4th illustration is from The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1 (1909).

Recited by Ruth Golding.