Lyrics
Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I’ve been up to London to visit the Queen. Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair.
#Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been? at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Sung in
- English
- Words by
- Traditional
- First known
- 1805
- Best for ages
- 2–5
- Mood
- playful, traditional
- Last updated
- 24 August 2026
How to sing it
- Begin slowly so everyone can hear the repeated words and the action cue.
- Let one singer ask the questions and another answer as the cat, then swap roles.
- Repeat the song once and invite a different child to lead the cues.
Meaning and origin
This four-line dialogue makes a grand journey deliberately small. One singer asks where the cat has been; the cat answers that it went to London to visit the Queen. Asked what it did there, it ignores royal ceremony and reports frightening a mouse beneath a chair. The last detail brings the adventure back to the scale of an ordinary cat.
“Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat” was printed in Songs for the Nursery in 1805. The text says only “the Queen” and never names a monarch, palace or historical incident. Later attempts to connect the rhyme to a particular court may make an attractive story, but the retrieved source does not support one. This page therefore keeps the date of the documented printing while leaving the Queen unidentified and the earlier origin open.
The question-and-answer form needs no complicated melody or game. One child or group can ask the two questions and another can answer as the cat, then the roles can swap. A small bow for London, a regal wave for the Queen and a quick mouse gesture under an imaginary chair are enough to make every line visible.
Common questions
- Which queen appears in Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat?
- The rhyme says only “the Queen” and does not name a monarch. Connecting the cat to a particular queen or royal court would therefore be speculation rather than something established by the text.
- What does the pussy cat do at the palace?
- Instead of describing the Queen, the cat says it frightened a little mouse under her chair. That small domestic detail is the rhyme’s comic answer to the grand journey to London.
