Suffer little children

[Sister]

Was walking around the Manchester cemetery yesterday and found a gravestone which says: Suffer little children to come onto me. That was for a little girl, who died in 1922 aged 2.

The gravestone itself is rather new, but I suppose they just recreated what was written on the old one and added new name, when another member of the family died in 2005.

I know where the phrase is coming from, but Morrissey may well have seen it there as well.

Not that it is of a major importance, but I though I'd share anyway.

[jossu]

Was walking around the Manchester cemetery yesterday and found a gravestone which says: Suffer little children to come onto me. That was for a little girl, who died in 1922 aged 2.

The gravestone itself is rather new, but I suppose they just recreated what was written on the old one and added new name, when another member of the family died in 2005.

I know where the phrase is coming from, but Morrissey may well have seen it there as well.

Not that it is of a major importance, but I though I'd share anyway.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing it!

[mspendl828]

Nevermind.

[omsaps]

Did The Smiths ever play 'Suffer Little Children' Live , if so , is there a bootleg of it out there , i'd love to hear it , my Favourite Smiths song.

CHEERS
Keith.

[littlecharmer]

Did The Smiths ever play 'Suffer Little Children' Live , if so , is there a bootleg of it out there , i'd love to hear it , my Favourite Smiths song.

CHEERS
Keith.

I think the only time it was played was at The smiths first gig in october 1982. At this time there is no bootleg of it.

[mozmal]

Suffer Little Children was, as far as I know, only played once live at the very first Smiths gig at the Ritz, way back in 1982. No bootleg exists of this gig, or does it? Cheers :D

[littlecharmer]

I believe it has something to do with Myra Hindley. When she was imprisoned fellow inmates would walk past her and say "Suffer little children".

In reply to chica.

[chica]

I know where the phrase is coming from, but Morrissey may well have seen it there as well.
Where does it come from anyway? It sounds biblical to me, but I have no religious education whatsoever. However, I'm guessing Morrissey did learn a thing or two at St Mary's Secondary Modern :D

The immediate cause was Hindley's repeating of that phrase while she was in prison, wasn't it?

[davdavon]

According to Wikipedia:


The title of the song, "Suffer Little Children", is a phrase found in the Gospel of Matthew (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Matthew), chapter 19, verse 14, in which Jesus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus) rebukes his disciples (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Apostles) for turning away a group of children and says,
"Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The song does not appear, however, to interpret the phrase in the biblical sense, with "suffer" meaning "permit". Instead, it seems to use the phrase, either mistakenly or deliberately, as a poetical inversion, meaning: "Little children suffer".
Morrissey's main source of inspiration for the lyrics was Welsh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_people) author Emlyn Williams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emlyn_Williams)' artful 1968 account of the Moors killings, Beyond Belief: A Chronicle of Murder and its Detection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Belief:_A_Chronicle_of_Murder_and_its_Detec tion). In the book, one of the chapter headings is "Suffer Little Children", as is the phrase "Hindley Wakes". It seems that Williams had intended "Hindley Wakes" as a pun on Hindle Wakes, the title of an acclaimed 1912 stage play about prostitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution) in Lancashire, written by Mancunian playwright Stanley Houghton.

[chica]

That explains it! ;) Thanks davdavon!

[nightandday]

actually, this is the answer:

I believe it has something to do with Myra Hindley. When she was imprisoned fellow inmates would walk past her and say "Suffer little children".

In reply to chica.

[robertzombie]

I believe it has something to do with Myra Hindley. When she was imprisoned fellow inmates would walk past her and say "Suffer little children".

In reply to chica.

Yep you're right, although I have read that the fellow inmates said the whole phrase, "Suffer little children to come onto me" which is where Morrissey got the "Suffer little children" part from.

[sonof77]

Hindle Wakes was a film about Charabang trips to the seaside for the factory workers, never saw any prostitution in that.