“Doctor Foster” is a nursery rhyme dating to 1844. Is Doctor Foster a person, or is this a lesson for children to watch their step, avoiding puddles as a metaphor for trouble?
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Doctor Foster went to Gloucester,
In a shower of rain,
He stepped in a puddle,
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.
Origin Story
Elmer Boyd Smith, the children’s books writer and illustrator, suggested Edward I of England inspired the rhyme. Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and Hammer of the Scots, reigned over England from 1272 to 1307.
While traveling to Gloucester, he fell from his horse and landed in a puddle. The king assumed the puddle was shallow but found out the hard way it was a deep gulley. Angry and embarrassed, he refused to return to the city again.
The king’s destination, Gloucester, of strategic importance, provided a route for his battle with Wales. He possibly received the nickname “Doctor” for being a learned man. But “Foster” rhymes with “Gloucester,” sending scholars on a dead-end chase for a neat rhyme instead of a man.
Old Words
Notice that “puddle” doesn’t rhyme with “middle,” suggesting the archaic word “piddle” might have been the original rhyme. A different version appears in an 1810 collection called Gammer Gurton’s Garland (also known as The Nursery Parnassus).
Old Dr. Foster went to Gloster,
To preach the work of God.
When he came there, he sat in his chair,
And gave all the people a nod.
First published as a chapbook in 1784, it’s one of the earliest collections of English nursery rhymes. Gammer Gurton’s Garland is a foundational collection of nursery rhymes. It featured the first prints of well-known nursery rhymes like “Goosey, goosey gander,” “The rose is red, the violet is blue,” and “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.”
The 1810 collection probably doesn’t refer to King Edward I. Instead, Doctor Foster in Gammer Gurton’s Garland might be about an emissary of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud (1573–1654). The archbishop visited Gloucester to change the communion tables away from their post-Reformation position. He needed to move the tables to the east end of the church instead of the center position. But a flood kept him from his destination.
Charles I used Laud to remodel the church. Though Charles was Protestant, his imposed rituals caused suspicion that he failed the Protestant movement against the Catholic Church. At this time, the Thirty Years’ War raged in Europe. The war spilled over from the Reformation’s usurpation within the Holy Roman Empire.
An agreement proposed a two-state solution—Lutheran and Catholic—but Protestantism destabilized the deal by expanding beyond the borders. A struggle for power motivated each side, creating a broader context for the religious conflict.
History may not repeat, but it rhymes—as the saying goes. The conflict between Israel and Palestine shares a rhythm with the competing 16th and 17th-century cultural, religious, and political power structures.
Sympathy for the Devil
Another explanation exists in Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1592 or 1593), one of the first adaptations of the Faust tale. Faust is a German legend based on Johann Faust or John Faustus in English, who makes a deal with the Devil at the crossroads. He trades his soul for unlimited knowledge and pleasure, finalizing an agreement with the Devil’s agent, Mephistopheles.
In Marlowe’s play, Faustus receives the nickname “Doctor Fauster” after causing someone to get wet crossing a river, using magic to change a straw into a horse. The horse changed back into a straw in the middle of the river, sending the poor man into a splash.
He’s a Magic Man
Marlowe’s Elizabethan tragedy follows a chapbook of Faust’s sins called Historia von D. Johann Fausten. Johann Spies printed the book in 1587. Marlowe’s interpretation portrays Faust as proficient in Renaissance magic.
C. S. Lewis wrote how magic and occult practices changed significantly, influencing shifts in culture and religion. Medieval magic was whimsical. During the Renaissance, magic sought hidden knowledge through books and rituals. Magic and science co-existed. Lewis noted, “They were born of the same impulse.”
The 15th and 16th centuries’ preoccupation with sorcery and witchcraft, roiled by the tumult of the Protestant Reformation, moved evolutionarily toward the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries—reason at war with superstition.
Adults Heed the Warning, Too
A fascinating thing about teaching children is revisiting old lessons adults have forgotten. The world’s leaders still misjudge puddles. Often, the consequences put everyone in the ditch. The Hammer of the Scots refused ownership of his mistakes, maybe all he needed was a nursery rhyme.
(Image via @APPUSERIES on YouTube)
