Three Blind Mice
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{{confused|Three Blind Mice and Other Stories}}
{{dablink|This article is about the children's nursery rhyme. For the Three Blind Mice in [[Dr. No]], see [[List of James Bond henchmen in Dr. No]].}}
'''''Three Blind Mice''''' is a children's [[nursery rhyme]] and musical [[Round (music)|round]].
The modern words are:
:''Three blind mice. Three blind mice.''
:''See how they run. See how they run.''
:''They all ran after the farmer's wife''
:''She cut off their tails with a carving knife.''
:''Did you ever see such a thing in your life''
:''As three blind mice.''
The first publication of this rhyme was written by [[Thomas Ravenscroft]] in 1609. The lyrics there are:
:''Three Blinde Mice,''
:''three Blinde Mice,''
:''Dame Iulian,''
:''Dame Iulian,''
:''The Miller and his merry olde Wife,''
:''shee scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife.''
There is an urban legend that this musical round was written earlier and refers
to [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary I of England]] executing three [[Oxford Martyrs|Protestant
bishops]]. The earliest lyrics don't talk about directly killing the three blind mice and are dated after Queen Mary died, however, "she scrapte her tripe licke thou the knife" implies they were prepared and consumed if not a reference to tasting the blood of a slain adversary. (she scraped off the entrails and the knife was licked).
There is a narrative ambiguity at the heart of the rhyme, which is the question over whether the mice are chasing the farmer's wife after she cut their tails off, or whether she cut their tails off after they began chasing her.
In several sports (basketball and hockey, for example, which have three referrees), "Three Blind Mice" is used as a derogatory phrase for poor referees. Bands also play the song to mock referees in similar cases. Such references, however, are heavily frowned upon officially by both sports as unsportsmanlike.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCM/is_2_30/ai_79743286 Play Us a Song, You're the Organ Man - hockey - Brief Article | Hockey Digest | Find Articles at BNET.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>[http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2709823 ESPN - Frank not fined; Kidd docked $20K for postgame rant - NBA<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University_Band</ref>
Before major-league [[baseball]] required four [[umpires]] at every game, there were regularly three. The [[Los Angeles Dodgers|Brooklyn Dodgers]] had a fan band called the "Sym-Phoney Band," led by Shorty Laurice, which started playing "Three Blind Mice" when the umpires came out onto the field until the league office ordered the team to stop it.
[[Joseph Holbrooke]] (1878-1958) composed his Symphonic Variations, opus 37, based on ''Three Blind Mice''. Also, [[Joseph Haydn]] used its theme in the Finale (4th Mvt) of his [[Symphony No. 83 (Haydn)|Symphony 83 (''La Poule'')]] (1785-86); one of the 6 ''[[Paris Symphonies]]'', and the music also appears in the final movement of English composer Eric Coates' suite The Three Men. "Three Blind Mice" was also used as a theme song for [[The Three Stooges]] and a [[Curtis Fuller]] arrangement of the rhyme is featured on the [[Art Blakey]] live album of the same name. [[10cc]]'s "[[I'm Not in Love]]" has Three Blind Mice playing in the end.
In the 1977 song "Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk" by [[Parliament (band)|Parliament]], these lyrics are repeated several times:
"Three blind mice
See how they run
They all ran after the farmer's wife
Turned on the fun with the water pipe
Have you ever seen such a sight in your life?
Those three blind mice
Those blind three mice
[[The Beatles]] used the sentence "See how they run" in two of its songs, "[[I am the Walrus]]" and "[[Lady Madonna]]".
The Three Blind Mice are featured in the [[Shrek]] movies as friends of Shrek.
The ''[[Blood Ties (TV series)|Blood Ties]]'' episode "5:55" features someone whistling the tune of "Three Blind Mice" repeatedly.
A cover version was heard on the [[James Bond]] film ''[[Dr. No]]'', his first film. The lyrics were:
:''Three blind mice in their room.''
:''Three blind mice, there they go.''
:''Marching down the streets in goodbye.''
:''To a calypso beat all the while.''
:''They're looking for the cat,''
:''The cat that swallowed the rat.''
:''They want to show that cat the attitude of three blind mice.''
==See also==
*[[Three Blind Mice and Other Stories]]
*[[List of James Bond henchmen in Dr. No]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://eclipse.rutgers.edu/goose/rhymes/mice/ Scholarly analysis]
[[Category:Nursery rhymes]]
[[Category:Fictional blind characters]]
[[Category:Alvin and the Chipmunks songs]]
[[Category:Fictional mice and rats]]