The song tells the nonsensical story of an old woman who
swallows increasingly large animals, each to catch the previously swallowed animal, but dies after swallowing a horse. There are many variations of phrasing in the lyrics, especially for the description of swallowing each animal. The earliest reference in the
British Newspaper Archive to a song about a woman who swallowed a fly comes in an 1872 report in
The Era about a show called Britannia's Picture Gallery at the
Polytechnic. "A new comic extravaganza is here sung by Mr Buckland, being the story of 'Mrs Somebody', who might be anybody, and whose doleful fate it was to swallow a fly." It credits the lyrics to Frank W. Green and the music to Alfred Lee. The song appears to have been a hit on the stage of the London
music halls. In 1873, at Berner's Hall, in Islington, a Mr W. Freeman "caused much mirth and won cordial applause" for a recital of "Poor Mrs Somebody" who swallowed a fly.
The Era, in 1879, says a Mr Howard Baker sang a song at
Crowder's called "Poor Mrs Somebody" who swallowed a fly. An 1888 book records the song as involving the swallowing of a spider, a bird "and so on". A report from 1887 in the
Walthamstow and Leyton Guardian of a musical evening at Walthamstow Art School, says a recital by a Mr Blenham "fairly convulsed the audience." The
Indian Daily News in 1896 also recounts how a Colonel Chatterton "convulsed the assembled infants and most of the grown-ups with an inimitable song about a lady who 'swallowed a fly'." Dorothy B. King tells of a recital in 1943. {{Blockquote Shortly afterwards, the journal
Hoosier Folklore published three versions of the story from different parts of the United States (
Colorado,
Georgia and
Ohio) in its December 1947 edition. The editor calls it a "cumulative tale", and asks readers for information on its origins. All three versions begin with a lady swallowing the fly and end with her dying after swallowing a horse, but there are variations in what animals are swallowed and the rhymes for each animal. The origins of the song are uncertain. It's possible it was inspired by an anecdote about the London surgeon
John Abernethy which was widely reported on his death in 1831. A young woman came to seek medical help after swallowing a spider. "Mr Abernethy dextrously caught a blue-bottle fly as it fled by him, and told the patient to put it in her mouth and if she spit it out in a few moments the spider would come out with it." By the start of the 20th century, the story had mutated. According to the Glasgow Observer's telling of the "celebrated case", Abernethy suggested he should send a spider down into her lungs to catch the fly. She "declared that she felt the spider walking down her throat when Abernethy was only tickling it with a feather, and declared herself completely cured when Abernethy showed her both fly and spider in a test tube." == Recording ==