There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children
she did not know what to do;
She gave them some broth
without any bread;
She whipped them all soundly
and put them to bed.
The old woman in the poem is supposed to be the
parliament of England who had many misbehaving children-
the far-flung colonies of England !..and this poem was
sung to make fun of the way the government handled them!
Another story refers the poem to a woman in France
called Margery Buttwhistle who was a village drunk and
prostitute. She had 20 illegitimate children who formed
a notorious shoe gang when they grew up. They used to
steal shoes and give it to their mother who use to sell
them for money. She used to sleep drunk in the cellar of
her house with the shoes for company !
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