I was reading Georgie Porgie to my 16 month old daughter this morning when I decided to pause for a second.

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away.

I can understand why some people see the rhyme as an early reference to sexual harassment. If you think of it, it reads as a young pervert who hangs out in parks and makes inappropriate advances on underage girls. It’s a newspaper headline in the making in today’s age.

It turns out the lyrics to “Georgie Porgie” refer to the courtier George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628). King James I took Villiers as his gay lover, though his most notorious affair was with Anne of Austria (1601-1666), who was Queen Consort of France. Those must have been some rocking days back in England.

I looked into it a little further.

More references to Georgie being a bad boy can also be found in Aldous Huxley’s book Brave New World:

Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun,
Kiss the girls and make them One.
Boys at one with girls at peace;
Orgy-porgy gives release.

Then of course comedian Andrew Dice Clay took it to the extreme with:

Georgie Porgie, Puddin’ and Pie,
Jerked off in his girlfriend’s eye;
When her eye was dry and shut,
Georgie fucked that one-eyed slut.

I like going to bed at night knowing that at one point in the day I’ve learned something new. Finding out Georgie Porgie was a King’s gay lover was it for Sunday August 24th 2008. My next task is to read Old Mother Goose, I can’t wait to find out what she was up to.

Perhaps I should be a little pickier with the literature I choose to read to my daughter.

And with that I leave you with with the 70′s rock group Toto: