When I hear, “Valentine’s Day,” the queen of hearts rhyme I learned as a tot, always pops to mind: “The queen of hearts, she made some tarts, all on a summer’s day, The knave of hearts, he stole those tarts, and with them run away…” (I think the illustration of the skinny-legged “knave” running off with the tarts in the nursery primer was what fascinated me most.) Anyway, thinking about the verse recently, I poked around and discovered it was written by an anonymous poet in the 1700s, who added three more scandalous stanzas that definitely wouldn’t fly in the nursery. I’m guessing you’ve never heard them either, so here you go:
The queen of hearts, she made some tarts, all on a summer’s day,
The knave of hearts, he stole those tarts, and with them run away:
The king of hearts call’d for those tarts and beat the knave full sore;
The knave of hearts brought back those tarts, and said he’ll ne’er steal more. (continued through link)
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