Men At Arms

41

This comes from the nursery rhyme Hark! Hark!. The Mother Goose version goes:

Opies’ Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes gives the last two lines as:

Terry’s household nursery rhyme book must strike a balance between these two versions. The rhyme is said to be about the mob of Dutchmen that William of Orange brought over with him to England in 1688, with the “one in a velvet gown” being the Prince himself. Or else it is a reference to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, forcing monks to beg on the streets for a living. Take your pick.