Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
200
AUTHOR:
Author unknown
QUOTATION:
Mondays child is fair in face, Tuesdays child is full of grace, Wednesdays child is full of woe, Thursdays child has far to go, Fridays child is loving and giving, Saturdays child works hard for its living; And a child thats born on a Christmas day, Is fair and wise, good and gay.
ATTRIBUTION:
Author unknown.Anna E. K. S. Bray, Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire , vol. 2, pp. 28788 (1838).
Later publications of this poetical adage have made minor word changes, including line 7 to read But a child thats born on the Sabbath day. This is the wording used in Bartletts Familiar Quotations, 15th ed., p. 932 (1980).