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,

‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ in Latin

Mica, Mica, parva stella;
Miror quaenam sis tam bella!
Splendens eminus in illo,
Alba velut gemma, caelo.

Quando fervens sol discessit,
Nec calore prata pascit,
Mox ostendis lumen purum,
Micans, micans per obscurum.

Tibi, noctu qui vagatur,
Ob scintillulam gratatur;
Ni micares, tu non sciret,
Quas per vias errans iret.

Meum saepe thalamum luce
Specularis curiosa;
Neque carpseris soporem,
Donec venit sol per auram.

Carmina latina, ed. by Roy C. Flickinger (Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press, 1919), p. 11.

*Although the Latin is suited to the tune of the original nursery rhyme, the editor recommends instead singing the Latin to the tune of Annie F. Harrison’s ‘In the Gloaming’, resolving the half-note into two quarter notes at the end of every alternate line (bella, caelo, etc.) to provide the necessary extra syllable.