Cock Robin - Origin and Meaning

Origin and Meaning

Although the song is not recorded until the eighteenth century, there is some evidence that it might be much older. The death of a robin by an arrow is depicted in a 15th-century stained glass window at Buckland Rectory, Gloucestershire, and the rhyme is similar to a story, Phyllyp Sparowe, written by John Skelton about 1508. The use of the rhyme 'owl' with 'shovel', could suggest that it was originally used in older middle English pronunciation. Versions of the story appear to exist in other countries, including Germany.

A number of theories have been advanced to explain the meaning of the rhyme:

• That the rhyme records a mythological event, such as the death of the god Balder from Norse mythology, or the ritual sacrifice of a king figure, as proposed by early folklorists as in the 'Cutty Wren' theory of a 'pagan survival'.
• That it is a parody of the death of William Rufus, who was killed by an arrow in the New Forest (Hampshire) in 1100.
• That the rhyme is connected with the fall of the government of Robert Walpole in 1742, since Robin is a diminutive form of Robert and the first printing is close to the time of the events mentioned.
• More recently internet speculation has associated the rhyme with Robin Hood, largely, it seems on the basis of a shared name.

All of these theories are based on perceived similarities in the text to legendary or historical events, or on the similarities of names. Peter Opie pointed out that an existing rhyme could have been adapted to fit the circumstances of political events in the eighteenth century. As with many such theories there is no textual or supportive evidence that the rhyme is connected to the selected events, or that the phrase 'Cock Robin' was used before the rhyme was first published.

The theme of the death of Cock Robin, as well as the distinctive cadence of the poem, has become something of an archetype, much used in literary fiction and other works of art, from poems, to murder mysteries, to cartoons.