I do not like thee, Doctor Fell

The anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme is that when Brown was a student at the Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief. The dean of Christ Church, John Fell (1625–1686), who later went on to become the Bishop of Oxford, expelled Brown but offered to take him back if he passed a test. If Brown could extemporaneously translate the thirty-second epigram of Martial (a well known Roman epigrammatist), his expulsion would be cancelled. The epigram in Latin is as follows:

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
Hoc tantum possum dicere: non amo te.[3]

A literal English translation is:

I do not like you, Sabidius, and I can't say why. This much I can say: I do not like you.

Brown made the impromptu English translation which became the verse:

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why – I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.[3]

Fell is said to have stayed Brown's dismissal from the college in admiration of this translation. However, the story is of apocryphal provenance, and it is known that Brown left Christ Church without a degree.

The rhyme 'I do not like thee Dr. Fell' was not included in Mother Goose collections until the 1920s, following its inclusion in 'Less Familiar Nursery Rhymes' (1927) by Robert Graves .[4]

The rhyme was also used by Charles Addams in his rather different version of Mother Goose. The Chas Addams Mother Goose (1967).