Oranges & Lemons

Nursery Rhyme

Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement's

You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin's

When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich,
Say the bells of Shoreditch.

When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney

I do not know,
Says the great bell of Bow

Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

Chip-chop, chip-chop
The last man's dead

History

Oranges and Lemons is a nursery rhyme that originated around 1744 in England. The rhyme is now game similar to London Bridge, where two players face each other and form an arch with their arms while the rest file through in pairs. On the last word, the two creating the arch "chop" the heads off of the pair under the arch; those two then have to stand next to the original pair and create a second arch. As the game progresses, the tunnel players have to run through gets longer and longer, making escape trickier.

The rhyme has changed drastically over the years, making interpretation difficult. The original 1744 rhyme did not include the last few lines; those were first observed in the 1840s. Despite the changes to the rhyme over the years, many people have speculated over the meaning of Oranges and Lemons.

Some popular theories include Henry VIII's marital difficulties and his fondness of the guillotine, indications of child sacrifice, the public nature of executions in the 1700s, and that the rhyming scheme is simply a way to help children remember the names of the bells around London. Since the incorporation of the last two lines, Oranges and Lemons has amassed many cultural references, including George Orwell's 1984. Although the rhyme is sung in a cheerful manner, the undertones remain fairly dark.

Interpretation

Given the other interpretations that I had read--most notably the reference to the guillotine in the Henry VIII theory and that each day's executions begun when the morning bells rang--I made the connection that the man had somehow landed himself in jail after committing a crime. The leap I had to make was how someone could go from not having enough money to committing something worthy of execution I wanted to provide a storyline that, while severe, is not that uncommon in the real world; people rarely begin their careers as criminals with murder..

The storyline that I arrived at was a man borrowing money to pay for the novel items (oranges and lemons), but not having enough money to pay back the loan. When the loan shark began exerting pressure, the man resorted to stealing, which led to increasingly serious crimes. He is eventually arrested, as no one's luck can last forever, and is sentenced to execution.

With the instruction to work outside our comfort zone, I decided to translate the story graphically using Illustrator. Due to the dark(er) nature of the comic, I wanted to illustrate in a somewhat crime noir fashion with an emphasis on contrast and shadows. Having barely touched Illustrator in the past and not considering myself an artist by any means, this project quickly became overwhelming and more than I bargained for. Despite my desire to illustrate, I have not taken an art class since it was required of me and have a weak grasp on basic drawing principles such as perspective, shadow, and light source.

Due to time constraints--and my patience--I cut out some of the scenes showing his progression into more severe crime, but tried to maintain the basic storyline. As I progressed through the project, not only did my familiarity with the tools improve, but I also feel that I developed a more distinctive style that is particularly prominent in the last four panels. While I hope to redraw the initial panels when time permits, the evidence of my progress is, I hope, clear.