Nursery Rhyme Origins - Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet,

Sat on a Tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider,

Which sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away

This little rhyme is one of the most well-known nursery rhymes and is still recited by children from all over. There are two popular theories  that I can find from a brief search on google, as to its origin and meaning, with one camp attributing it to a Dr Thomas Muffet (who died in 1604), as an ode to his stepdaughter, and others claiming it is a metaphorical reference to Mary, Queen of scots. I thought I would investigate these two theories for you today :)
First and foremost, an examination of the rhyme in printed literature:

The earliest recorded version of this rhyme would appear to be an 1805 book entitled “Songs for the nursery”. An 1808 reprint of this is available online at archive.org (see references below). An early tome which is considered the original book of nursery rhymes, “Tommy Thumb’s pretty song book”, printed in 1744, does not hold any reference to this rhyme. The verse seems to have come to popularity in the mid-nineteenth century amongst those recording nursery rhymes, and especially after 1878 it was reprinted multitudes of times. Despite that the rhyme was often printed with slight variances (a “black spider” etc) it was pretty much the same verse. In his 1849 tome on nursery rhymes, James Halliwell Phillips neglected to add Miss Muffet, but included it as “Little Mary Ester, Sat upon a tester, Eating of curds and whey.”  This is interesting in the fact that Halliwell-Phillips was an avid collector of nursery rhymes and therefore could tell us that before 1850, the “Miss Muffet” version was perhaps a lesser known variant. The Mary Ester version is claimed (by Opie and Opie, who were experts on the subject of nursery rhymes) to originate in 1812 in printed material, however I have been unable to locate a copy to confirm this.

 In 1878, William Adolphus Wheeler reprinted the rhyme with the Miss Muffet opening line, alongside two very closely similar verses, the most notably similar being:

Miss Poll Parrot, 

Sat in her garrett

Eating some toast and tea

A little brown mouse

Came into her house

And stole it all clean away.

Opie and Opie  discuss in their 1955 dictionary of nursery rhymes, how similar some of the form of the rhyme is to “Little Jack Horner” which was a popular rhyme first found in chapbooks in the early eighteenth century (1720).

Opie and Opie also list a multitude of other potential originals, discussing the idea of somebody sitting and pursuing an action (mainly eating something) which is then interrupted by somebody or something arriving or another important action.

So, firstly, let us examine the wording used in the rhyme.
Nowadays, the word Tuffet is used to describe a footstool fairly commonly, however this has not always been the case. In fact, it might even be that the use of the word tuffet has come from people’s interpretations of this rhyme, and especially the illustrations of it which show the lady on a foot-stool. Prior to the nineteenth century, a tuffet was more likely describing a grassy knoll, therefore indicating that Miss Muffet had taken her food outside.  

And what of that food? Curds and Whey, pretty much, are like a sweet cottage cheese. They are a by-product of cheese-making and have been around for centuries (as long as cheese-making), and so this gives no clue as to the date of the rhyme.The name little Miss Muffet might give a clue though. One of the most popular theories about the origins of this rhyme allude to a Dr Thomas Muffet who was an expert on insects in the 1500s. in 1885, he was listed in the dictionary of national biography to have been especially interested in spiders. Whilst this this rather a coincidence, and fun to imagine how perhaps he wrote the rhyme to tease one of his step-daughters, there is literally no evidence whatsoever to link the rhyme to this man, other than the coincidence of his name and profession. He is not known for writing poetry or rhyme, and there is no evidence that he wrote this one especially considering that the rhyme only appears in 1805.  

Another version of this theory, (as quoted by the North Mymms History Project Website) pertains to the poem being written about Dr Muffet, rather than by him, and discusses the use of spiders in 16^th century medicine and how he frightened his daughters by keeping spiders in the house or even dumping spiders on them.Now, I have not researched extensively into the use of spiders in medicine, but aside from the use of spider’s webs in bandage making, I can find no evidence to support spiders being used medicinally by Dr Muffet, however, I suppose it is plausable. In fact, and I did not spend a great deal of time on this, I struggled to find any academic references at all to sixteenth century doctors using spiders as medicine. (If you know of any do feel free to educate me by posting in the comments!) What I did find, however, was nineteenth century writing on medicine which alluded to swallowing and touching spiders in order to cure, amongst other things, spider phobia! (Frank Cowan’s 1865 book, curious facts in the history of insects for example). 
During the nineteenth century, especially later in the nineteenth century, there was a surge in the emergence of interest in science, including natural sciences, and so it is highly possible that doctors such as Dr Muffet were once again taking the attention of science scholars. An example of this is in a journal (a monthly or sometimes quarterly academic magazine-like book) from 1886, where Dr Muffet was the subject of a whole article. So perhaps if there is a link here at all, it is perhaps feasible that this well-known spider enthusiast loaned his name to the late eighteenth/early nineteenth person who penned the rhyme – but this is pure speculation at this point.

Another popular theory, many, many websites and blogs tell me, is that the rhyme is a metaphor for Mary, Queen of Scots. However, I have actually struggled to find anything of note about this theory other than that Miss Muffet was Mary, Queen of Scots, and that the “spider” was John Knox who was a religious reformer. Therefore, this seems almost to be an internet myth in itself, with very little to no actual evidence to it. Nowhere in literature have I found John knox referred to or even characaturised as a spider, and there is no link with the muffet name to Mary.

Conclusion.I’m afraid the answer to this one, like with so many nursery rhymes, is that we just don’t know. The facts of the matter are that the rhyme in it’s popular format was first published in 1805, but was based on an older style rhyme, and that in the 1500s there was a doctor who was obsessed with spiders by the name of Muffett.
My personal feeling on this one, is that the rhyme itself, in structure and style, is just another version of a much-used formula which originated many years prior to 1805, albeit with different words, and that the Miss Muffett reference was an 18^th century memory of a doctor who was obsessed with spiders, but in the end, that’s majoratively speculation.

References

Cahan, David, From Natural Philosophy To The Sciences (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003)

Collingbourne, Huw, "Tuffets And How To Sit On Them", Sircourtlynice.Blogspot.Com, 2010 <http://sircourtlynice.blogspot.com/2010/09/tuffets-and-how-to-sit-on-them.html?m=1> [Accessed 4 July 2019]

Cowan, Frank, Curious Facts In The History Of Insects; Including Spiders And Scorpions. A Complete Collection Of The Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, And Ominous Signs Connected With Insects; Together With Their Uses In Medicine, Art, And As Food; And A S By Frank Cowa (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1865), p. 395

Hardwicke, Robert, "Hardwicke's Science-Gossip", Nature, 22 (1886), 158

Opie, Iona, and Peter Opie, A Nursery Companion, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, originally printed 1951), p. 382

Tabart and Co, Songs For The Nursery, 2nd edn (London: Bond Street, 1808), p. 23

"Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book", The British Library Collection Items, 2019 <https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/tommy-thumbs-pretty-song-book> [Accessed 4 July 2019]

Wheeler, William Adolphus, Mother Goose's Melodies (Cambridge: Hurd and Houghton, 1878), p. 72