The earliest record of the rhyme is in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in 1744, which noted only the first four verses. The extended version given below was not printed until c. 1770. The rhyme has often been reprinted with illustrations, as suitable reading material for small children. The rhyme also has an alternative ending, in which the sparrow who killed Cock Robin is hanged for his crime. Several early versions picture a stocky, strong-billed bullfinch tolling the bell, which may have been the original intention of the rhyme.
Origin and meaning
Although the song was not recorded until the mid-eighteenth century, there is some evidence that it is 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 the stories have been advanced to explain the meaning of the rhyme:
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'.
It is a parody of the death of King William II, who was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest in 1100, and who was known as William Rufus, meaning "red".
The rhyme is connected with the fall of Robert Walpole's government in 1742, since Robin is a diminutive form of Robert and the first printing is close to the time of the events mentioned.
According to Celtic traditions, Lugh, the sun god who dies as the nights get longer after the summer solstice, is marked in the old Celtic pictographic calendar with a bow-and-arrow shape. Lugh was the primary god representing the red sun and was also known in Welsh as “Coch Rhi Ben,” anglicised to “Cock Robin”. The sparrow who kills him with “my bow and arrow” represents Brân the Blessed – the god of winter in the form of a raven.
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. The theme of Cock Robin's death as well as the poem's distinctive cadence have become archetypes, much used in literary fiction and other works of art, from poems, to murder mysteries, to cartoons.
