Three Latin Nursery Rhymes

1. ‘CARMINA GYNACEI’ [Little Jack Horner]

In latebra sedit Horner (dixere) Johannem,
Parvus, edens natale, quietus! crustula christi,
Inseruit digitum—depromsit, callide! prunum,
Et laetus dixit—“Juvenis quam sum bonus ego.”

2. [Hey diddle diddle]

Nunc felem citharamque cano cum hei diddle diddle,
Lactiferam necnon vaccam qui saltat ad astra,
Atque canem parvum qui risit videre ludos,
Cochlear et patinam fugientem, horribile visu!

3. ‘Invocatio ad Mercurium et eius responsum.’ [Mary had a little lamb]

“Parvus, oves Bopeep infelix perdidit olim,
   Qua censes O Rex invenisset eas?”
“Permitte esse in eas ad ovilia mox redituras,
   Haud dubio caudas ducere pone suas.”

Anonymous, The Regrets of Memory (London: Henry Wix, 1840), pp. 101-103. Emended ‘inveniisset’. The first two are simple dactylic hexameters; the third has been rendered as an epigram in elegiac couplets,