And the Oh, Sing a song song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened, the birds began to

began to sing, oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

Welcome to another episode from 100 thousand one heroes, legends, histories and mysteries.

This one from our history series is titled Sing a Song of Sixpence, which we all recognize to be the first line of a popular nursery rhyme by the same name.

Nursery rhymes, at least most of the ones we're familiar with in English, have been around for hundreds of years. They almost always offer a song and just

enough poetry to make them fun and memorable. But in many of them there is a hidden

meaning, sometimes innocent, sometimes sinister, and often poking fun at the

British monarchy, which in times past didn't tolerate criticism very well. Say anything nasty about the king or queen and your head

might well end up on the chopping block or your feet in the fire, literally. Or if

you were found guilty of most insidious slander of a king like Henry the 8th, or Queen like Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Bloody Mary, your death might be a slower one, aided by instruments of torture known as silver bells and

cockle shells.

And one more note, stay tuned at the very end of the episode for a blooper.

I've got a good one for you. Here's our first

nursery rhyme. Sing a song of sixpence. Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye.

Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the

birds began to sing. Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king. The king was in his counting house, counting all his money.

The queen was in the parlor, eating bread and honey. The maid was in the garden

hanging out the clothes, when down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose.

There are a few different interpretations of the words to this popular nursery rhyme,

including one that attributes it to a coded song that Blackbeard's

pirates of all people used to find new recruits. In this version, Sixpence was the amount offered

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