Ring a ring of roses,
a pocketful of poises.
A-tishoo, a-tishoo,
we all fall down.
The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease. Sneezing or coughing was a final fatal symptom, and 'all fall down' was exactly what happened.
I can just about start to imagine a circle of children dressed in dirty playsuits on the streets in England 1950s, in grainy film and haunting voices singing to the rhyme with hands joined, as people around them started to fall....
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