Notes & Queries Archive
QUERY1850

The Spider and the Fly

By S. J.

Can any of your readers, gentle or simple, senile or juvenile, inform me, through the medium of your useful and agreeable periodical, in what collection of nursery rhymes a poem called, I think, "The Spider and Fly," occurs, and if procurable, where? The lines I allude to consisted, to the best of my recollection, of a dialogue between a fly and a spider, and began thus:— *Fly*. Spider, spider, what do you spin? *Spider*. Mainsails for a man-of war. *Fly*. Spider, spider, 'tis too thin. Tell me truly, what 'tis for. *Spider*. 'Tis for curtains for the king, When he lies in his state bed. *Fly*…

Topics: Nursery Rhymes, Victorian Poetry