"There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme, with a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19132.

Iona and Peter Opie pointed to the version published in Infant Institutes in 1797, which finished with the lines: Then out went th' old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin, And when she came back, she found 'em all a-loffeing.

[5] Debates over the meaning of the rhyme have largely revolved around matching the old woman with historical figures, as Peter Opie observed "for little reason other than the size of their families".

[1] Some evidence suggests the rhyme refers to the wife of Feodor Vassilyev of Shuya, Russia, who reportedly birthed 69 children during her lifetime (1707–c.1782).

The phrase "gave them some broth without any bread" may refer to George's parsimony in the wake of the South Sea Bubble of 1721, and his attempts to restore his own and the country's finances.