Oranges And Lemons

The last man

Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's.

You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's.

When will you pay me? Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich, Say the bells of Shoreditch.

When will that be? Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know, Says the great bell of Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed,

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head

Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead

"Oranges And Lemons", Nicholl Bouvier Games 1874, “The Pictorial World” Agnes Rose Bouvier (1842 - 1892)

"Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London.

The rhyme is a song about debt and death in the Square Mile.

The nursery rhyme is based historical events. Debtors were sent to Newgate prison, which was located at present day Old Bailey. The Bellman would arrive by candle light to inform the debtors of their execution the next morning. The lyrics follow the sequence of churches passed by prisoners as they were marched to the Tower of London to be beheaded.

The original rhyme was first printed in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744),

the lyrics being:

Two Sticks and Apple,
Ring y^e Bells at Whitechapple,
Old Father Bald Pate,
Ring y^e Bells Aldgate,
Maids in White Aprons,
Ring y^e Bells a S^t. Catherines,
Oranges and Lemons,
Ring y^e bells at S^t. Clements,
When will you pay me,
Ring y^e Bells at y^e Old Bailey,
When I am Rich,
Ring y^e Bells at Fleetditch,
When will that be,
Ring y^e Bells at Stepney,
When I am Old,
Ring y^e Bells at Pauls.

Textual references to Oranges and Lemons date back to the 17th century but the rhyme is almost certainly older - and some of the churches themselves date back to before the Norman Conquest.

There is considerable variation in the churches and lines attached to them in versions printed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The last two lines, with their different metre, do not appear in the earlier recorded versions of the rhyme. They were first collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s -

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head

Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead.

A Group of Children Playing the Game 'Oranges and Lemons' in a Domestic Interior’ Harry Brooker. Museum Of The Home

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Was the rhyme altered for a reason in the 1840s?

The mid nineteenth century was a time of great change-

The Last Man

The Last Man was the first dystopian novel. It was written by Mary Shelley in 1826

The narrative concerns Europe in the late 21st century, ravaged by the rise of a bubonic plague pandemic that rapidly sweeps across the entire globe, ultimately resulting in the near-extinction of humanity. It also includes discussion of the British state as a republic, for which Shelley sat in meetings of the House of Commons to gain insight to the governmental system of the Romantic era. The novel includes many fictive allusions to her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, who drowned in a shipwreck four years before the book's publication, as well as their close friend Lord Byron, who had died two years previously.

The Last Man was critically savaged and remained largely obscure at the time of its publication. It was not until the 1960s that the novel resurfaced for the public.

Marxism

Marxism originated in the 1840’s with the publication of “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Origin Of The Species

Darwins “Origin Of The Species” was published on the 24th November 1859

Ideas about the transmutation of species conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals.

The book was written for non-specialist readers which meant it attracted widespread interest upon its publication. Darwin was already highly regarded as a scientist, so his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion.

What is the importance of these events? Well, they paint man as a mere animal, they remove God as Creator and replace it with man, (in Frankenstein a transhuman man) and they promote the goal of eventually achieving a classless communist society through worker revolution.

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1940

One hundred years later on from -

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head

Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead.

George Orwell starts writing Nineteen Eighty Four

1947

Bright Phoenix, Ray Bradbury

When the town's chief censor comes to use the library as a testing ground for burning selected books, a librarian angers him with his strange behaviour. Originally written in 1947, the premise was later expanded upon and turned into The Fireman, the novella which was later expanded upon and turned into Fahrenheit 451.

Winston Smith, the last man in Nineteen Eighty Four works in the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line. This involves revising newspaper articles and doctoring photographs—mostly to remove "unpersons", people who have fallen afoul of the party.

1948

Nineteen Eighty four was published in 1948 (1948 switched to make 1984)

The Dystopian Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1984, itself very influenced by Nineteen Eighty four, especially the appendix.

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1984

The Last Man in Europe was the early title for 1984

In 1984 O'Brien refers to Winston as the 'last man' as a way to underscore his role as one of the last thinking individuals in a society controlled by the authoritarian regime of Big Brother.

‘If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man" (section 3 Ch 3).

Orwell uses Oranges And Lemons throughout Nineteen Eighty-Four to demonstrate how traditions are slowly being lost in the Oceania society. Every child used to know this rhyme and now Winston does not remember any of it, and most people only remember snippets. Orwell also uses the rhyme to show that even though most memories have been lost on the surface of the mind, they are still deep inside the subconscious.

It is first introduced in Part I by Mr. Charrington, the antique shop-owner (and secret Thought Police agent), as he shows Winston an old picture of a church:

“I know that building,” said Winston finally. “It’s a ruin now. It’s in the middle of the street outside the Palace of Justice.”
“That’s right. Outside the Law Courts. It was bombed in --oh, many years ago. It was a church at one time, St. Clement’s Danes, its name was.” He smiled apologetically, as though conscious of saying something slightly ridiculous, and added: “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s!”
“What’s that?” said Winston.
“Oh -- ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s.’ That was a rhyme we had when I was a little boy. How it goes on I don’t remember, but I do know it ended up, ‘Here comes a candle to light you to bed, Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.’

It lodges itself in Winston's brain as a gateway to an alternate London:

the half-remembered rhyme kept running through Winston’s head. Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clement’s, You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s! It was curious, but when you said it to yourself you had the illusion of actually hearing bells, the bells of a lost London that still existed somewhere or other, disguised and forgotten. From one ghostly steeple after another he seemed to hear them pealing forth. Yet so far as he could remember he had never in real life heard church bells ringing.

In Part II, the rhyme re-appears as Winston and Julia admire the picture after making love:

“It’s a church, or at least it used to be. St. Clement’s Danes its name was.” The fragment of rhyme that Mr. Charrington had taught him came back into his head, and he added half-nostalgically: ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s!’”
To his astonishment she capped the line:
“You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s,“When will you pay me? say the bells of Old Bailey-
“I can’t remember how it goes on after that. But anyway I remember it ends up, ‘Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!’”
It was like the two halves of a countersign. But there must be another line after “the bells of Old Bailey”. Perhaps it could be dug out of Mr. Charrington’s memory, if he were suitably prompted.
“Who taught you that?“ he said.
“My grandfather. He used to say it to me when I was a little girl. He was vaporized when I was eight - at any rate, he disappeared. I wonder what a lemon was,” she added inconsequently. “I’ve seen oranges. They’re a kind of round yellow fruit with a thick skin.”

The oranges and lemons are a symbol of confusion and misconceptions. Julia and Winston only know part of the truth about the fruit. History has been changed.

One more stanza is revealed after O'Brien inducts Winston and Julia into the Brotherhood:

Almost at random Winston said: “Did you ever happen to hear an old rhyme that begins ‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement’s’?”
Again O’Brien nodded. With a sort of grave courtesy he completed the stanza:
“‘Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s, You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin’s, When will you pay me? say the bells of Old Bailey, When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch.’”
“You knew the last line!” said Winston.
“Yes, I knew the last line. And now, I am afraid, it is time for you to go.”

And then finally, when Charrington reveals himself as an agent of the Thought Police, he quotes the last line:

“You may as well say good-bye,” said the voice. And then another quite different voice, a thin, cultivated voice which Winston had the impression of having heard before, struck in; “And by the way, while we are on the subject, Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!”

The fact that O'Brien knows the rest of the words (he reveals some to Winston, but he obviously knows them all), shows how those in power keep secrets from the people, to maintain control.

There are more stanzas to the rhyme that neither O'Brien nor Charrington recite, most commonly:

When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know,
Says the great bell at Bow.

and finally -

Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead.

So despite Orwell wanting to call his novel The Last Man, this final line is never spoken out loud.

Winston, The Last Man, is broken. He succumbs to the party.

The last man is dead.

He will slowly be forgotten, just like the few lines, that will cease to exist or have any meaning in a few years time, when everyone who can remember them will be dead.

Interestingly, Orwell never includes the entire nursery rhyme in Nineteen Eighty-Four. This represents history and traditions being lost, only parts of the rhyme can be remembered. It serves as an example of the eradication of shared culture

Maybe he chose “Oranges And Lemons” as a sly nod to the possibility that his book was actually written as social engineering and not dystopian fiction. After all this Nursery Rhyme was amended in the 1840’s with the additional final sinister two lines.

The more lines of Oranges and Lemons that Winston learns, the closer he gets to his own demise : 'here comes the chopper to chop off your head'.

Oranges and Lemons is not just a nursery rhyme, it is also a children's dance or game. Two children place their hands together to form an arch - an arch of sanctuary. The other children pass under the arch in pairs as the song is sung. At the end Here comes a chopper to chop off your head, a pair of children is caught. That caught pair makes another arch. The song and dance is now repeated, and it becomes harder for the remaining (surviving) children to reach the sanctuary of the church metaphorically created by the arches. The process repeats until all participating children have been "beheaded".The excitement and the mild threat is that, as the song is repeated and repeated, it becomes harder and harder to survive - to escape the system.

The rhyme represents Winston: he is representative of the few remembered lines, with the other lines being the rest of the world, that are being forgotten and abandoned. Winston stands there alone, like the few lines he knows. He will slowly be forgotten, just like the few lines when they cease to exist and have any meaning in a few years time when everyone who can remember them will be dead.

Removing The Bells

During the First and Second World Wars many thousands of bells were destroyed.

Bell cemetery in Hamburg after the Second World War. [Bundesarchive]

In Germany and across Europe, tens of thousands of bronze bells—some imparting “the songs of the angels” since the 12th century—had been seized and melted down for arms and munitions.

During the First World War, 44 per cent of the bells in Germany alone were lost, many given willingly to support the war effort—and some not so willingly.

Bells have a special place in many religious and cultural traditions. They mark joyous occasions, like weddings, and somber ones, like funerals. They tell time, call dinner, celebrate holidays, summon students to class and send them home after school. They declare the arrivals of trains, ward ships away from shallow waters and alert residents to impending upheavals.

“The silence of the bells makes clear that something has fallen apart,” Rev. Rüdiger Penczek, a Protestant pastor based near Cologne, recently told the German broadcast service, Deutsche Welle.

read more about bells here

Bells taken by the Austro-Hungarian army in a storehouse near Lviv, Ukraine, in 1916.

It has long been known that the plague did not spread where church bells were regularly heard. In Russian laboratories, with the help of experiments, it was determined that the oscillation of the ultrasonic range of church bells repels bacilli, viruses, and other infectious diseases that are transmitted through the air, and even cures many other diseases.

Since ancient times, it was believed that the sound of bells has a beneficial effect on human health, has healing powers, alleviates diseases … Over the centuries, this opinion, based on pure faith and assumption, has found a rational explanation in modern science. It turned out that it was due to the ultrasound, which the bells emit during the ringing. Ultrasound spectrum (more than 25,000 Hz), with its competent therapeutic application, accelerates the treatment of infectious diseases and increases human immunity. Due to the specific distribution of the power of the ringing sound wave – along a unique spiral path – the cell structures of microorganisms come into resonance and are destroyed. Even hepatitis, typhus, influenza, cholera and anthrax spores die under this influence. For example, it has long been noticed that bell ringers never catch a cold.

read more here

According to theories circulating on the internet, after World War 1 and 2, there was an intentional destruction of bells and pipe organs in cathedrals. The reason behind this alleged destruction is quite fascinating. It is believed that sitting inside a resonating bell or listening to the sound of a pipe organ can instantaneously heal the human body.

The theory suggests that sound frequencies have the power to structure all the cells in the body simultaneously, leading to instant healing. This is similar to the effects of chanting or other sound-based healing practices.

Could this be true?

Let me know what you think.