"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride" is a proverb and nursery rhyme, first recorded about 1628 in a collection of Scottish proverbs,[1] which suggests if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.[2] It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20004.
| "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1605 |
| Songwriter(s) | unknown |
Lyrics edit
Common newer versions include:
- If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
- If turnips were watches, I'd wear one by my side.
- If "ifs" and "ands" were pots and pans,
- There'd be no work for tinkers' hands.
And also:
- If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
- If turnips were swords, I'd have one at my side.
- If "ifs" and "ands" were pots and pans,
- There'd be no work for tinkers' hands.
A shorter variant:
- If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
- If turnips were bayonets, I'd wear one by my side.[3]
A variant intended to be humorous:
- If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
- If horse turds were biscuits, they'd eat 'til they died.
Origin edit
The first recognizable ancestor of the rhyme was recorded in William Camden's (1551–1623) Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, printed in 1605, which contained the lines: "If wishes were thrushes beggars would eat birds".[4] The reference to horses was first in James Carmichael's Proverbs in Scots printed in 1628, which included the lines: "And wishes were horses, pure [poor] men wald ride".[4] The first mention of beggars is in John Ray's Collection of English Proverbs in 1670, in the form "If wishes would bide, beggars would ride".[4] The first versions with close to today's wording was in James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs, Collected and Arranged in 1721, with the wording "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride".[4] The rhyme above was probably the combination of two of many versions and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s.[3] The last line was sometimes used to stop children from questioning and get to work: "If if's and and's were pots and pans, there'd surely be dishes to do."
Notes edit
- ^ "the origin of if wishes were horses". Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- ^ "the definition of if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
- ^ a b I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 427.
- ^ a b c d G. L. Apperson and M. Manser, Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs (Wordsworth, 2003), p. 637.
Phill Jubb used this as the title of his 1996 progressive house record.