Talk:Little Miss Muffet

Family Circus

When I added this item to the article, I entered the first line as "Little Miss Muppet/Sat on a tuppet." (I included the bracketed question mark at the end.) I don't know who changed "tuppet" to "buffet" but "tuppet" is in Bil Keane's original. Dougie monty (talk) 18:09, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I remember that there is also a rude version which was:

Little Miss Muffet sat down on a tuffet,

Her clothes all tattered an torn,

But it wasn't the Spider who crept up beside her,

It was little Boy Blue with a horn! Miletus (talk) 13:39, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The Section "Alternative Lyrics" is mistitled, because "Little Miss Muffett" is not a song with lyrics. More importantly, is it really appropriate to include that nonsense about Walt Whitman's possible or reputed partner and his suggestive rhyme? This takes speculation as a basis for changing the subject to one that is wildly inappropriate, since that parody is in no way an "alternative" to the original rhyme, and since it is not well known, there is no reason to acknowledge its existence. I do not think it has been included in good faith. Wordwright (talk) 02:40, 12 February 2013 (UTC)Wordwright.

The lyrics in the Lyrics section aren't the lyrics in the infobox photo

The header pretty much says it all. Is this fine? Not fine? InedibleHulk (talk) 03:38, 29 May 2019 (UTC)

Along came a spider

The article says "Along Came a Spider" takes it's name from a crucial line in the nursery rhyme. But that line does not appear anywhere else on the page. I'm confused. Is that a line in the rhyme or not? 172.115.99.168 (talk) 18:58, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

Which sense of "curds and whey"?

Currently, the link in the lyrics is targeted at Junket (dessert). But how do we know that this is correct? Curds and whey gives three meaningful definitions, and one that's effectively just "what Miss Muffet ate". Does the cited ODNR give evidence that this is the intended meaning?

It seems to me the article probably ought to explicitly address this interpretational aspect. Currently there's a section about the interpretation of "tuffet" but not about the interpretation of "curds and whey". My recommendation would be to place this and the existing Tuffet section in a section called "Interpretation" or something. I'm not sure what the best title would be. Of course, the content would need to come from somewhere.... — Smjg (talk) 13:16, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

The link to Junket (dessert) seems wrong, as a modern meaning. I've corrected the line to the intended targets curds and whey. MichaelMaggs (talk) 08:43, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

@MichaelMaggs: So she was just having curdled milk? Again, what's your evidence? For all I can tell, it could have meant either this or cottage cheese, going by the disambiguation page. I don't know if there are other plausible interpretations. — Smjg (talk) 22:21, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

It could potentially be cottage cheese, as that's partially-drained curdled milk solids (curds) and liquids (whey). It's unclear exactly what would have been understood by 'curds and whey' in 1805, the date of first publication of the rhyme. The first record of the term 'cottage cheese' is from 1831 (source: OED). MichaelMaggs (talk) 11:38, 29 October 2024 (UTC)