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Counting

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

Good for:
Baby, Toddler
Tune:
The French tune “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, as printed in Our Old Nursery Rhymes (London, 1911)
Hear how the tune goes, on a music box

“Baa! Baa! Black sheep, Have you any wool?” “Yes, marry have I, Three bags full; One for my master, And one for my dame, But none for the little boy That cries in the lane!”

How to play

  1. “Baa! Baa! Black sheep, have you any wool?” Say “baa” in your best sheep voice, then ask the question with a big, curious face. With a young baby, stroke their hair or tummy as if it were soft wool.
  2. “Yes, marry have I, three bags full;” Nod, then hold up three fingers and count them slowly: one, two, three.
  3. “One for my master,” Wiggle one finger, then point to someone nearby, or to a teddy.
  4. “And one for my dame,” Wiggle the next finger and point to yourself.
  5. “But none for the little boy that cries in the lane!” Wiggle the last finger and pull a sad face. Or give the last bag away, as the oldest version does: sing your baby’s name for the little boy, and tap their tummy for their bag of wool.

Where it comes from

It was first printed in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book, published in London in about 1744, the oldest book of English nursery rhymes that survives. In that version the little boy who lives down the lane gets a bag too. In later books, such as Mother Goose’s Melody, he gets none and cries in the lane instead.

These words and the tune in the player come from Our Old Nursery Rhymes (1911). Today most people sing the kinder ending, where the little boy gets the third bag. Sing whichever you like.

The tune is the French melody “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, in print by about 1761: the same one as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and the alphabet song. Victorian songbooks, such as Walter Crane’s The Baby’s Opera, set these words to it too.

You may have read that the rhyme is really about the slave trade, or about a tax on wool in the Middle Ages. There’s no good evidence for either. The wool-tax idea comes from a 1930 book that tried to find real people and events behind nursery rhymes, and the slavery story seems to have started in arguments in the 1980s, more than 200 years after the rhyme was first printed. A black sheep was simply part of the flock, and its dark wool could be made into cloth without dyeing.

Old words

  • marry: an old word meaning “indeed” or “why, yes”. It began as a way of swearing by the Virgin Mary.
  • master and dame: the man and the woman in charge of the house or the farm.
  • lane: a narrow country road.

Tips

  • For a young baby, count the three bags on their fingers or toes instead of yours.
  • Toddlers can hold up their own three fingers. Counting along to a tune is an easy way to practise.
  • It shares a tune with Twinkle, Twinkle, so if your baby likes one, sing them the other.

Where these words come from

Public domain. A traditional English rhyme, first printed in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book (London, about 1744). Text from Our Old Nursery Rhymes, the original tunes harmonised by Alfred Moffat (London: Augener, 1911), as transcribed by Project Gutenberg (eBook #61009). Original source

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