Skip to content

The Tragical Death Of An Apple Pie

October 31, 2020
by the gentle author

Last week, I bought a whole box of Bramley apples from Kent 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

6 Responses leave one →
  1. October 31, 2020

    An impressive early Version of a Comic Book.

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  2. paul loften permalink
    October 31, 2020

    Oh this apple pie baked in its crust
    For its taste I do lust
    Mr Kipling just will not do
    Its apple is just like a goo
    Crowned by a mound of Devon cream
    Pray mamma this slice is far too mean

  3. Peter Metaxas permalink
    October 31, 2020

    This is the best! I’ll try to remember and then recite it to my grandson Axton when he is a bit older, now being 23 months and interested in only tractors and such lately.

  4. October 31, 2020

    Where’s ‘I’ and ‘U’? Maybe ‘we’re’ sharing the pie?

  5. October 31, 2020

    Catnach. What a wonderful name.

  6. Pamela Traves permalink
    November 1, 2020

    Poor Pie, Died too young!!! Can WE have another one!?!? ??????

Leave a Reply

Note: Comments may be edited. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS