Old King Cole

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Old King Cole

This is an article about the nursery rhyme.

A legendary king of Celt

Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
ic Britain

Roman Britain

Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl
And he called for his fiddlers three.

Every fiddler he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Oh there's none so rare, as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

So runs a traditional nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for ?traditional? songs for young children in Britain and many English speaking countries, but usage only dates from the nineteenth century and in North America the older ?Mother Goose Rhymes? is still often used....
the earliest mention of which appeared in 1708-9.

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Old King Cole 2 Ww Denslow Project Gutenberg Etext 18546

This is an article about the nursery rhyme.

A legendary king of Celt

Celt

Roman Britain

Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl
And he called for his fiddlers three.

Every fiddler he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Oh there's none so rare, as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

So runs a traditional nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

Brythonic languages

The Brythonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Wales Celtic studies Sir John Rhys from the Welsh language word Brython, meaning an indigenous Brython as opposed to an Anglo-Saxons or Gaels....
(Cumbric

Cumbric language

Cumbric was the Brythonic languages Celtic languages, sometimes considered to be a dialect of Welsh language, spoken in the Hen Ogledd in what is now northern England and southern Scottish Lowlands Scotland, the area anciently referred to as Cumbria....
) name possibly derived from the Roman Caelius, and there are several candidates for a historical basis to the rhyme amongst both the legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude ....
ary and historical kings of the Romano-British

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
and sub-Roman

Sub-Roman Britain

Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeologists' label for the material culture of Great Britain in Late Antiquity. "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the pottery sherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a higher standard under the Roman Empire....
period.

King Cole of Colchester

Popular British legend tells us that there is said to have been a King Cole living in the town of Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is a town, and the largest settlement within the Colchester , in Essex, England.It has a population of List of English cities by population....
in Essex in the third century AD. In about 1129, Henry of Huntingdon

Henry of Huntingdon

Henry of Huntingdon was an English historians in the Middle Ages and archdeacon of Huntingdon....
claimed that Cole was the father of St Helena

Helena of Constantinople

Saint Helena also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople was the consort of Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I....
and therefore grandfather of the Roman Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
, Constantine the Great. 'Colchester' has been interpreted as meaning 'Cole's castle', although the first part of the name is generally believed to be that of the River Colne

River Colne, Essex

The River Colne is a small river that runs through Colchester. It is not a tributary of any other river, instead having an estuary that joins the sea near Brightlingsea....
on which the town stands. The town also contains an old Roman

Roman Empire

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mining from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone....
called 'King Cole's Kitchen'.

In his possibly fictional History of the Kings of Britan
Historia Regum Britanniae

The Historia Regum Britanniae is a pseudohistory account of Great Britain history, written c.1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the List of legendary kings of Britain in a chronological narrative spanning a time of two thousand years, beginning with the Troy of Homer's Iliad founding the Brython nation and conti...
, Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a clergyman and one of the major figures in the English historians in the Middle Ages and the popularity of tales of King Arthur....
lists a Coel as a king of the Britons

Brython

Historically, the Britons were the P-Celtic indigenous peoples inhabiting the island of Great Britain south of the river Forth. They were speakers of the Brythonic languages and shared common cultural traditions; the surviving P-Celtic languages are Welsh language, Cornish language and Breton....
following the reign of King Asclepiodotus. Geoffrey states that, upset with Asclepiodotus's handling of Diocletian

Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
's massacres, Coel began a rebellion in the duchy of Caercolun (Colchester), of which he was duke. He met Asclepiodotus in battle and killed him, thus taking the kingship of Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
upon himself. Rome

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, apparently, was thrilled that Britain had a new king and sent a senator, Constantius Chlorus

Constantius Chlorus

Flavius Valerius Constantius , also Constantius I, was an Roman emperor of the Western Roman Empire . He was commonly called Chlorus an epithet given to him by Byzantine Empire historians....
, to negotiate with Coel. Afraid of the Romans, Coel met Constantius and agreed to pay tribute and submit to Roman laws as long as he was allowed to retain the kingship of Britain. Constantius agreed to these terms but, one month later, Coel died. Constantius married Coel's daughter, Helena

Helena of Constantinople

Roman client kingdoms in Britain

The Roman client kingdoms in Britain were native tribes who chose to align themselves with the Roman Empire because they saw it as the best option for self-preservation or for protection from other hostile tribes....
s only survived for a few years after the Roman invasion

Roman conquest of Britain

By AD 43, the time of the main Roman invasion of Britain, Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire....
, but leading tribal families may still have held positions of power at this later period. This character is, however, most likely to be a memory of the great pre-Roman King Cunobelinus

Cunobelinus

Cunobelinus was a historical king in pre-Roman Ancient Britain, known from passing mentions by classical historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius, and from his many inscribed coins....
of the Catuvellauni

Catuvellauni

The Catuvellauni were a Celtic/Belgae tribe or state of south-eastern Prehistoric Britain before the Roman conquest of Britain.The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their kings before the conquest can be traced through numismatic evidence and scattered references in classical histories....
tribe – Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
's Cymbeline
Cymbeline

Cymbeline is a play by William Shakespeare, based on legends concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobelinus. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a Shakespeare's Late Romances....
– who made Colchester his capital. Yet another possibility is that Cole is the Celt

Celt

Deity

A deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divinity, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by human beings....
, Camulus

Camulus

In Gaulish Mythology, Camulus or Camulos was the List of Gaulish deities of the Remi, a Gaul tribe, who lived in the area of today's Belgium....
, a god of war. The old Brython

Brython

Camulodunum

Camulodunum is the Ancient Rome name for the ancient settlement which is today's Colchester, a town in Essex, England. Camulodunum is the Oldest town in Britain in England as recorded by the Romans, existing as a Celtic settlement before the Ancient Rome conquest, when it became the first Roman town, and eventually a settlement of discharged...
, and the derivation sequence /kamul/ (+ lenition
Lenition

Lenition is a kind of consonant mutation that appears in many languages. Along with assimilation , it is one of the primary sources of historical linguistics of languages....
) > /kawul/ > /kaul/ > /ko:l/ is possible, especially among the Celtic languages

Celtic languages

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European languages language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul....
. If Camulus is Cole, then Colchester (from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
for 'Cole's fortress') and Camulodunum (from Brythonic Celtic for 'Camulus' fortress') are synonyms. It is possible that the Latin form is a calque

Calque

In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation....
on the Celtic.

Old King Cole 1 Ww Denslow Project Gutenberg Etext 18546

King Cole of Northern Britain

An altogether more historical character was Cole Hen, a Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
name which actually means 'Coel the Old'. He appears in a number of Old Welsh pedigrees – notably the Bonedd Gwyr y Gogledd (or 'The Descent of the Men of the North') – at the head of several post-Roman

Sub-Roman Britain

Hen Ogledd

Yr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh language term meaning 'The Old North' and referring to the Sub-Roman Britain Brythonic kingdoms located in what is now northern England and southern Scotland....
, the "Old North" covering modern Northern England

Northern England

Northern England, the North, the North of England, or the North Country refers to the parts of England north of an ill-defined line....
and Southern Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, including those ruling Rheged

Rheged

Rheged [Welsh IPA: r??g?d] was a Brythonic kingdom of Sub-Roman Britain, whose inhabitants spoke Cumbric, a dialect of Brythonic closely related to Old Welsh....
, Elmet

Elmet

During the Early Middle Ages, between approximately the 5th century and early 7th century AD, Elmet was an independent Celtic kingdom covering a broad area of what later became the West Riding of Yorkshire....
and possibly York

Ebrauc

Ebrauc is the suggested name for a Brythonic kingdom of sub-Roman Britain, based on the city of York. This city was called by the Brythonic name of Caer Ebrauc in Nennius?s Historia Britonum....
, Bryneich

Bernicia

Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxons kingdom established by Angles settlers of the 6th century in what is now the South-East of Scotland, and the North East England of England....
, the other kingdoms in the Pennines

Pennines

The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range in northern England and southern Scotland. They separate the North West England from Yorkshire and the North East England....
and possibly the Gododdin

Gododdin

The Gododdin were a Britons people of north-eastern Roman Britain in the sub-Roman Britain period, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North....
territory extending well into Scotland. He is also considered to be the father-in-law

Father-in-law

A father-in-law is a spouse's father.See also* Affinity * Marriage* Mother-in-law...
of Cunedda

Cunedda

Cunedda ap Edern , also known as Cunedda Wledig , was an important early Wales leader, and the progenitor of the royal dynasty of Kingdom of Gwynedd....
, founder of the Kingdom of Gwynedd

Kingdom of Gwynedd

Gwynedd is one of several Wales successor states that emerged in 5th-century sub-Roman Britain. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the Deceangli which were collectively known as Venedotia in late Romano-British documents....
in North Wales, by his daughter Gwawl. The so-called Arthur stone

Arthur stone

The Arthur stone was discovered in 1998 in securely dated sixth century contexts among the ruins at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, a secular, high status settlement of Sub-Roman Britain....
names him as an ancestor of Artognou

Historical basis for King Arthur

The historical basis of King Arthur is a source of considerable debate among historians. The King Arthur of Arthurian legend appears in many legends but it has not been decisively established whether his origin was entirely mythical or whether he was based on one or more historical figures....
, a post-Roman ruler at Tintagel

Tintagel

Tintagel is a village situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. It is in the North Cornwall District and the population of the parish 1,820 persons; area of the parish 4,885 acres....
. King Coel was born to Cunedda I. His siblings were Ceredig, Edurn, Meirionydd, Dunoding, Rhufoniog, and Dogfeling. His children were Garmonion, Cunedda II Menrudd, and Gwawl.

Projections back from dated individuals suggest that Coel Hen lived around AD 350–420, during the time when the Romans withdrew their forces from Britain

Roman departure from Britain

The Roman departure from Britain was completed by 410. The archaeological records of the final decades of Roman rule show undeniable signs of decay....
. This has led historians, such as John Morris

John Morris (historian)

John Robert Morris was an English historian who specialised in the study of the institutions of the Roman Empire and the history of Sub-Roman Britain....
, to suggest that he may have been the last of the Roman Duces Brittanniarum (Dukes of the Britons) who commanded the Roman army

Military history of ancient Rome

From its origin as a city-state in History of Italy during Roman times in 9th century BC, the rise as an Roman Empire covering much of Eurasia and North Africa and fall in the 5th century AD of Ancient Rome was often closely entwined with its military history....
in Northern Britain. He may have taken over the northern capital at Eburacum (York

York

York is a walled city, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire and River Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city status in the United Kingdom is noted for its rich heritage and it has played an important role throughout much of its almost 2,000 year existence....
) to rule over what had been the northern province of Roman Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between AD 43 and 410. The Romans referred to their province as Britannia....
. Upon Coel Hen's death, his lands would have been split between his sons, Garmonion and Cunedda II, and later his grandsons, Dunwal Moelmut, Cunedda III, and Gwrwst Ledlwn, thus creating the many old northern kingdoms of Britain. WF Skene recorded traditions of his death whilst campaigning in the Kyle

Kyle, Ayrshire

Kyle is a former comital district of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire. It is said to be named after 'Old King Cole,' a king of the Britons , who was reputedly killed in battle in this area and is said to be buried in a cairn near Mauchline....
district of what was later called Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former counties of Scotland in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine, North Ayrshire....
(Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
), which was subsequently named after him.

Welsh sources also give this man the alternative name of Coel Godhebog, meaning 'Coel the Magnificent' or 'Coel the Defender', but David Nash Ford considers this name may have been transferred from Cole of Colchester. From the 15th century to the 18th century, the two were certainly much confused. There are a number of other lesser known Coels mentioned in various Old Welsh sources too.

Later interpretations

Iona and Peter Opie believe the 'Old King Cole' of nursery rhyme fame was really 'Old Cole' (alias Thomas Cole-brook), a supposed 12th century Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, midway between London and Swindon off the M4 motorway....
cloth merchant

Cloth merchant

Cloth merchant is, strictly speaking, like a draper, the term for any vendor of cloth. However, it is generally used for one who owned and/or ran a cloth manufacturing and/or wholesale import and/or export business in the Middle Ages or 16th and 17th centuries....
whose story was recounted by Thomas Deloney

Thomas Deloney

Thomas Deloney was an England novelist and balladist.He appears to have worked as a silk-weaver in Norwich, England, but was in London by 1586, and in the course of the next ten years is known to have written about fifty ballads, some of which got him into trouble, and caused him to keep a low profile for a time....
in his The Pleasant History of Thomas of Reading (circa 1598). Some analysts think it unlikely that the nursery rhyme was written before 1585, when Sir Walter Raleigh

Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh or Ralegh, was a famed English writer, poet, soldier, courtier and explorer.Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne....
introduced tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines....
into England

England

Smoking pipe

A smoking pipe for tobacco smoking typically consists of a small chamber for the combustion of the tobacco to be smoked and a thin stem that ends in a mouthpiece ....
, but rather a musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
, or a measure of wine. The theory that "pipe" refers to a musical instrument (probably some form of woodwind instrument) is further suggested by the final lyrics of the song "there's none so rare, As can compare With King Cole and his fiddlers three", which seem to suggest that King Cole and his fiddlers played music together as a group. The term "pipe" is commonly used as an "informal term for a flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
or recorder

Recorder

The recorder is a woodwind instrument musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes — whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina....
". The word ceol actually means music

Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
in Gaelic, and this may be the origin of the name in the rhyme.

Modern usage

In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, "King Coal" is sometimes invoked as a metaphor for the centrality of coal mining

Coal mining

Coal mining is the extraction or removal of coal from the earth by mining. When coal is used for fuel in power generation it is referred to as steaming or thermal coal....
in the economy of Appalachia

Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the Eastern United States United States that stretches from southern New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia ....
, a role similar to that played by King Cotton
Cotton

Cotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa....
in the Deep South

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
.

In Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, King Cole is a brand of tea which has been manufactured by G.E. Barbour Inc for about a century.

Pop singer Nat 'King' Cole

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an United States musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist....
(actual surname Coles) said his nickname was inspired by "Old King Cole." The "King" in Nat Cole's name was usually used in quotation marks during his lifetime, but today it is often seen as though it were part of his name.

In his 1897 anthology Mother Goose in Prose
Mother Goose in Prose

Mother Goose in Prose is a collection of twenty-two children's story based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes. It was the first book written by L....
, L. Frank Baum

L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum was an United States author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker, best known today as the creator, along with illustrator W....
included a story explaining the background to the nursery rhyme. In this version, Cole is a commoner

Commoner

In British law, a commoner is someone who is neither the British monarchy nor a peerage. Therefore, any member of the British Royal Family who is not a peer, such as Prince William of Wales or Anne, Princess Royal, is a commoner, as is any member of a peer's family, including someone who holds only a courtesy title, such as the Earl of Arund...
who is selected at random to succeed the King of Whatland when the latter dies without heir.

In the Fables comic book

Comic book

A comic book is a magazine or book of narrative artwork and dialog and descriptive prose. The style was introduced in 1934. Despite the term, comic books do not necessarily feature humorous subject-matter; in fact, it is often serious and action-oriented....
, King Cole was the long-time mayor of 'Fabletown', a secret community of 'Fables', who were forced into exile in our world by a conqueror at home. He was defeated in an election by Prince Charming

Prince Charming

Prince Charming is a stock character who appears in a number of fairy tales. He is the prince who comes to the rescue of the damsel in distress, and typically must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil magic ....
and was no longer mayor. He then became ambassador of 'Fabletown' to the Arabian fables. After deciding to plan war to win back their homelands, he has since returned to Fabletown, assuming first the post of deputy mayor and then mayor respectively, after the resignation of Prince Charming.

Mad
Mad (magazine)

Mad is an United States humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952.The last surviving title from the notorious and critically acclaimed EC Comics line, the magazine offers satire on all aspects of American life and pop culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures....
ran a feature postulating classical writers' treatments of fairy tales. The magazine had Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
tackle "Old King Cole", resulting in a cadence similar to that of "The Bells

The Bells

"The Bells" is a heavily Onomatopoeia poem by Edgar Allan Poe which was not published until after his Death of Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It is perhaps best known for the diacope repetition of the word "bells." The poem has four parts to it; each part becomes darker and darker as the poem progresses from "the jingling and the tinkling" of the b...
":

Old King Cole was a merry old soul

Old King Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole, Cole.

The prog rock band Genesis

Genesis (band)

Genesis are an English rock music band formed in 1967. With approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide, Genesis are among the top 30 List of best-selling music artists....
included the rhyme on their song "The Musical Box", from their 1971 album Nursery Cryme
Nursery Cryme

Nursery Cryme is the third studio album by Genesis and was recorded and released in 1971. It is also the first album to feature the lineup of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Steve Hackett; the latter two replacing John Mayhew and Anthony Phillips, on drums and guitar respectively, in 1970....
.

In the 1970s, American comedian George Carlin

George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedy. He was also an actor and author, and he won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
offered this alternative:

Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl -
I guess we all know about Old King Cole...

The manner in which Carlin spoke the final line suggested that the pipe and bowl can be interpreted as marijuana

Cannabis (drug)

Cannabis, also known as Marijuana or marihuana, or ganja , is a psychoactive drug extracted from the plant Cannabis sativa, or more often, Cannabis sativa subsp....
references.

The United States military also has a version in the form of a marching cadence during the 1980s and in to the present:

Old King Cole was a merry old soul
and a merry ol' soul was he, uh huh.
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl
and he called for his privates three, uh huh.
Beer! Beer! Beer! cried the private.
Brave men are we
There's none so fair as they can compare
to the airborne infantry, uh huh.

The cadence included a verse for ranks from private to captain that included a dig at each rank.

There seems to be a reference to the nursery rhyme in Joyce's Finnegans Wake (619.27f):

"With pipe on bowl. Terce for a fiddler, sixt for makmerriers, none for a Cole."

Joyce is at the same time punning on the canonical hours Tierce, Sext, Nones (Terce ... sixt ... none) and on Finn MacCool (fiddlers ... makmerriers ... Cole)

Queen's song "Great King Rat":

"Great King Rat was a dirty old man
And a dirty old man was he
Now what did I tell you
Would you like to see?"

In Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie

Banjo-Tooie is a platform game and action-adventure game hybrid video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 2000 for the Nintendo 64 as a part of the Banjo-Kazooie ....
, there is a boss named Old King Coal. The character Kazooie says "I thought you were a merry old soul?", further referencing the rhyme.

The song was sang on the show Barney & Friends

Barney & Friends

Barney & Friends is a 1992 Children's television series show produced in the United States aimed at preschool children. The series features the title character Barney, a purple Anthropomorphism Tyrannosaurus who conveys learning through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, optimistic attitude....
, but with the last few lyrics changed (which were also adjusted for the drummer and trumpeter verses).

"Dance with the fiddlers
Dance with the fiddlers
Dance with the fiddlers three."

External links

The History Files: