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''Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater'' is an English Nursery Rhyme . Unlike a good many other nursery rhymes, this has American instead of European origin {Link without Title} . :Peter Peter pumpkin eater, :Had a wife but couldn't keep her. :He put her in a pumpkin shell, :And there he kept her very well. ADDITIONAL VERSE Another verse of unverified origin is listed {Link without Title} as: :Peter, Peter pumpkin eater, :Had another and didn't love her; :Peter learned to read and spell, :And then he loved her very well. POSSIBLE INTERPRETATIONS While literal interpretations of the rhyme are possible, they are generally non-sensical. Peter eats pumpkins, and didn't get along well with his wife. He decides to stick her inside a large pumpkin shell, which either separates them, helps control her or keeps her happy. The pumpkin shell, some have suggested, may refer to the occasional practice of nobility exiling unwanted wives to distant Castle s or to Nunneries . For example when Henry VIII Of England put aside his first wife, Catherine Of Aragon , for Anne Boleyn , he sent Catherine to remote Kimbolten Castle , hoping to persuade her to agree to the divorce. Henry's fourth wife, Anne Of Cleves , was sent to Hever Castle . An interpretation of the rhyme is that Peter's wife was unagreeable and he had rid himself of her by placing her in the pumpkin 'shell'. Another interpretation is that the pumpkin shell in the rhyme refers to a chastity belt {Link without Title} . In Colonial American English the word "pumpkin" was a euphemism for a woman's genitalia, suggesting that the rhyme is tongue in cheek humor referring to a colonial solution for Infidelity . The second, lesser known verse turns the rhyme considerably darker, telling how Peter has moved on to another woman, indicating that he had indeed somehow done away with his wife. Some have suggested that Peter removed his wife through murder, although that is not explicit in the text. Peter's problem in the second verse appears to be a loveless relationship solved through his educational self-improvement, thereby giving children a lesson to mind. The eating of pumpkins could represent the damnation of an individual. Hollowed-out pumpkins were used in colonial America to ward away evil spirits on Halloween before the ascension of souls on All Saints Day . Possibly veiled in the rhyme is reference to Henry VIII accusing Anne Boleyn of witchcraft and sexual deviance in order to arrange her exeuction in 1536, and placing himself at the head of the Church of England to obtain yet another marriage. REFERENCES IN POPULAR CULTURE One of Gary Larson's single-panel '' Far Side '' cartoons, Pumpkineater is in court, and a television reporter announces to a camera that his sister, Jeannie Jeannie Eatszucchini, is about to testify against him. In Todd McFarlane's/Greg Parisi's"Twisted Fairy Tales" line, Peter is depicted as a ragged and crazed man and is stuffing his wife's bloody remains inside a pumpkin. NOTES REFERENCES # 1 # 2 # 3 |
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