Three men in a tub;

And who do you think they be?

The butcher, the baker,

The candlestick-maker;

Turn 'em out, knaves all three!

Olde England was without the benefit of its present-day tabloids, so it relied on rhymes for spreading gossip. In the best tradition of yellow journalism, the earliest version of this bathing ballad describes three maids in a tub, performing in the sideshow at a local fair. Our three tradesmen in the audience lose control and jump onstage to bathe with the beauties. They get washed up in the resulting dirty scandal. The rhyme itself was later cleaned up for today’s storytime.

On January 18, Melissa Gray wrote:

I don't know if you are still adding to this site, but I had always heard that the “Rub-a-dub-dub” rhyme was referring to laundering money. The upper floors of candle stick shops were often used as poor tenant housing and “houses of ill repute” (prostitution), because the process of rendering tallow to make candles smelled so terribly that no one that had money / social standing would live in the space. Prostitution was looked on as poorly as it is today, so spending money gained from arranging such encounters was also looked down upon. As I always heard it, the butcher & baker were in with the candle stick maker, sending him clients for his tenants and laundering their share of the profits through their successful, legitimate businesses. When they were caught “cleaning” the dirty money, all three became public embarrassments!