Need some help with this the nursery rhyme Mary mary quite contrary, How does your garden grow?, with silver

Question

bells and cockle shells,

and pretty maids all in a row.

What does this really mean in simple english

each line if you please

Answer 1

i thought it was simple english==I can't see that getting any simpler

Answer 2

While nursery rhymes appear very simple, most have fairly complicated histories behind them. This poem refers to Queen Mary I of England. It was probably created to mock her.

The verse is broken down line by line at the link below. It's fascinating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mary_Q...

Answer 3

Mary is quite contrary--meaning she's a bit of a rebel and someone is asking what grows in her garden

She answers -- silver bells and cockle shells (type of seafood) and pretty maids all in a row (instead of having a row of flowers, which she would be growing if she were not so contrary)

Answer 4

mary mary quite contrary ( perverse or obstinate )      How does your garden grow ?-  A question to the perverse girl ;  with silver bells (Flowers) and cockle shells (Just what it says.. You put them standing upright for garden edging) and pretty maids - a pink flower- all in a row ho ho...and pretty maids all in a row. Remember this rhyme. from my english country childhood

Answer 5

Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired various historical explanations. One is that it refers to Mary I of Scotland, with "how does your garden grow" referring to her reign, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockleshells" insinuating that her husband cheated on her, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to her babies that died.

Another is that it refers to Mary I of England and her attempts to restore England to Roman Catholicism, identifying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.

These explanations vary; it is identified with Mary I of England for roughly the same reasons as with her Scottish counterpart; her husband Phillip II of Spain was barely interested in her (hence the word "cockleshells"), the "How does your garden grow?" being a mockery of her womb (and her inability to produce heirs) or the common idea that England had become a Catholic vassal or "branch" of Spain and the Habsburgs, or a punning reference to her chief minister, Stephen Gardiner ("gardener"). "Quite contrary" could be a reference to her unsuccessful attempt to reverse church reforms made by her father Henry VIII and brother Edward VI. The "pretty maids all in a row" could be a reference to miscarriages as with the other Mary or her execution of Lady Jane Grey after coming to the throne. "Rows and rows" may refer to her infamous burnings and executions of Protestants.

Alternatively, capitalising on the Queen's portrayal by Whig historians as 'Bloody Mary', the "silver bells and cockle shells" referred to in the nursery rhyme could be colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'silver bells' may refer to thumbscrews, while the 'cockleshells' are thought to have been instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals. Finally, 'maids' might be a reference to 'maidens' which were early guillotine-like devices used to sever heads.

Still, some argue that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary I of Scotland were contemporaries in the sixteenth century. Some historians suggest that the song was invented by Protestants and Anglicans to mock the reign of both Marys at the time or long afterwards.