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The Tragical Death Of An Apple Pie

December 9, 2017
by the gentle author

With the temperatures plunging below zero, my thoughts turn towards hot apple pie and so I take this opportunity to present The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie, an alphabet rhyme first published in 1671, in a version produced by Jemmy Catnach in the eighteen-twenties.

Poet, compositor and publisher, Catnach moved to London from Newcastle in 1812 and set up Seven Dials Press in Monmouth Court, producing more than four thousand chapbooks and broadsides in the next quarter century. Anointed as the high priest of street literature and eager to feed a seemingly-endless appetite for cheap printed novelties in the capital, Catnach put forth a multifarious list of titles, from lurid crime and political satire to juvenile rhymes and comic ballads, priced famously at a halfpenny or a ‘farden.’

A An Apple Pie

B Bit it

C Cut it

D Dealt it

E Did eat it

F Fought for it

G Got it

H Had it

J Join’d for it

K Kept it

L Long’d for it

M Mourned for it

N Nodded at it

O Open’d it

P Peeped into it

Q Quartered it

R Ran for it

S Stole it

T Took it

V View’d it

W Wanted it

XYZ and & all wished for a piece in hand

Dame Dumpling who made the Apple Pie

You may also like to take a look at

Old Mother Hubbard & Her Dog

Jemmy Catnach’s Cries of London

4 Responses leave one →
  1. Peter Green permalink
    December 9, 2017

    Brilliant! Thank you again, Gentle Author.

  2. December 9, 2017

    That simple rhyme for a apple pie piece was nice, would I like a second piece !of course I would I’m a poet. John a bus pass poet. PS thanks GA for giving poetry a spot today

  3. Toni Bracher permalink
    December 9, 2017

    Thank you for this old and simply beautiful story –
    The Tragical Death of an Apple pie

  4. Kitanz permalink
    December 10, 2017

    Great Apple Pie Pictures! My mouth is watering!! Thank You!!

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