(Pick A Letter to Choose a Rhyme!)

 

The words to the mp3 below can be found in the Notes.

•  MP3 Recording of Pease Porridge Hot

Here's the version from An Alphabet Of Old Friends (1874) by Walter Crane (it's recited in the mp3):

Pease-pudding hot, pease-pudding cold;
Pease-pudding in the pot, nine days old.

•  Another MP3 Recording of Pease Porridge Hot

Notes

Andrew Lang called this a "Game with the hands" in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).

Here's another version of this rhyme from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith:

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot nine days old.
Some like it hot,
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot nine days old.
Spell me that with a P
And a clever scholar you will be.

*****

I think people nowadays are more familiar with the version of this rhyme that can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916):

Pease porridge hot,
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot,
Nine days old.
Some like it hot,
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot,
Nine days old.

Here's how you play the hand-clapping game with the version above:

1. Slap thighs, clap hands, clap partner's hands.
2. Repeat line 1
3. Slap thighs, clap hands, slap partner's right with your right hand, clap hands.
4. Slap partner's left hand with your left hand, clap your hands, clap your partner's hands.
5. Slap thighs, clap hands, clap partner's hands.
6. Repeat line 5
7. Slap thighs, clap hands, slap partner's right with your right hand, clap hands.
8. Slap partner's left hand with your left hand, clap your hands, clap your partner's hands.

Photos & Illustrations

Thanks and Acknowledgements

The 1st illustration is from Mother Goose, The Original Volland Edition (1915), edited and arranged by Eulalie Osgood Grover and illustrated by Frederick Richardson (with some graphical editing by Mama Lisa). The 1st version of the rhyme and the 2nd illustration can be found in The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. The 2nd version of the rhyme and the 3rd illustration can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright.