Humpty dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. The words are an indelible part of nearly every English speaker’s childhood. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. You probably know the nursery rhyme so well you don’t give it a second thought. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men… You may have forgotten that the rhythmic recitation was originally a riddle. … couldn’t put Humpty together again. But while the solution to the nonsensical nursery rhyme is so well known that Humpty Dumpty’s egg shape has become synonymous with his identity, the question remains, Where did the rhyme come from, and what did it originally mean? Popular theories abound, though they’re probably more fanciful than factual. Cover of a 1904 adaptation of Humpty Dumpty by William Wallace Denslow. Some say Humpty Dumpty is a sly allusion to King Richard III, whose brutal 26-month reign ended with his death in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. In this speculative version, King Richard III’s horse was supposedly called “Wall,” off of which he fell during battle. He was bludgeoned so severely his men could not save him, becoming the last king to die in battle. A poster advertising a pantomime version at the Olympic Theatre in New York 1868, starring George L. Fox The 2012 discovery of Richard III’s skeleton beneath a parking lot in Leicester led to an updated diagnosis of severe scoliosis, which meant one shoulder might have been a little higher. The skeletal remains also showed evidence of 11 wounds, eight of which were to th...

But who was Humpty Dumpty? What brought him to that wall? And how did he fall off? We unpack the origins, history, lyrics and meaning of one of the most well-known children’s songs in the English-speaking world. Read more: ‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm’ reworked in the style of Beethoven is a stroke of genius What are the origins of ‘Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall’? In 1870, a chap called James William Elliott included ‘Humpty Dumpty’ when he collected together a load of English nursery rhymes and songs, set them to music, and published them in a volume called Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs Set to Music, with beautiful engravings by London engravers, The Brothers Dalziel. Before that, the rhyme can be traced back to the 18th century, and variations in lyrics (see below) have been recorded over time. It’s not clear who originally conceived the four-line poem. Humpty Dumpty | Kids Songs | Super Simple Songs Who was Humpty Dumpty? Humpty Dumpty is the protagonist of the English nursery rhyme, ‘Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall’. Perhaps due to his fragility revealed in the fall, he has often been portrayed as an egg – including by actor George L. Fox in his Broadway pantomime Humpty Dumpty, and by Lewis Caroll in his weird and wonderful Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Read more: There are lyrics to ‘Happy Birthday’ that you literally never knew about What is the meaning behind the nursery rhyme? There are other theories around the meaning of ‘Humpty Dumpty’. Some histor...

Popularization The song became popular in the United States in the mid-1800s. One of the most prominent literary works featuring the egg is Through the Looking Glass, published in 1872. Analysis of Humpty Dumpty The rhyme itself is fairly straightforward. It is written in Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again Although not considered very often today, the words “Humpty Dumpty” do you have a particular meaning. It is a reference to a kind of brandy which is boiled with ale. Scholars have suggested that this meaning of the words was combined with a more intuitive meaning, that of a clumsy person. These two things together make sense. And, when combined with an egg make for a Origins of Humpty Dumpty The rhyme was first published in Juvenile Amusements in 1797. It made use of lyrics which are similar to those known today, but with a few distinct differences. A number of other publications containing the poem make use of alterations, especially in the last line. Some collections such as James Orchid Halliwell’s, published the poem as: Humpty Dumpty lay in a beck. With all his sinews around his neck; Forty Doctors and forty wrights Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty to rights! Others, such as a version in Grammar Gurton’s Garland reads : Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall, Humpti Dumpti had a great fall; Threescore men and threescore more, Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before Cultural...

Nevin asks: Why is “Humpty Dumpty” always depicted as an egg? As you seem to have noticed, in the “Humpty Dumpty” nursery rhyme, nowhere does it say that Humpty is an egg, yet he is often presented as such in pictures and stories. The version of the rhyme that most children learn today goes like this: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. The first known publication of Humpty Dumpty was included in Juvenile Amusements by Samuel Arnold in 1797. In that version, the last lines read “Fourscore men and fourscore more / could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.” Over the next century, the rhyme appeared in numerous books with variations on the lyrics. These publications did not include the first use of the term “humpty dumpty,” though. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “humpty dumpty” was first used in the 17 th century and referred to brandy boiled with ale. In the 1700s, it was also a term used to describe a short, clumsy person. It has also been a nickname attributed to someone who has had too much alcohol (perhaps imbibing the drink of the same name). As the popular nursery rhyme is neither a bottle of alcohol nor a person, it is most likely that the nursery rhyme was intended as a riddle. The answer to the riddle, of course, is “an egg”—something that, if it rolled off a wall, could not be mended by any number of people. Today, the answer is so well kno...

In popular culture, Humpty Dumpty is portrayed as an egg with human-like qualities like legs, arms, a face and clothing. But if you read the lines of the poem, it doesn't say that Humpty is an egg anywhere. The key to understanding this poem is to realize it is actually a riddle. "In Iona and Peter Opie's The Humpty Dumpty rhyme first appeared in 1797 in a book titled "Juvenile Amusement," by Samuel Arnold. One theory is that Humpty Dumpty is supposed to be England's King Richard III. In the tragedy written by Shakespeare named after the notorious king, he's depicted as "a poisonous hump-backed toad," though it's probably because the Bard had Poor Richard was part of just another chapter in England's dramatic political theater, killed in battle at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, kicking off the reign of the Tudors. It's claimed that Richard III's horse was named 'Wall' and that he fell off and was so severely bludgeoned that he couldn't be saved. He was the last English king to die in battle. (Richard III's body was Humpty Dumpty also appeared in an 1803 edition of "Mother Goose's Melody," where he's depicted as a fat boy, with a last line says, "Couldn't set Humpty up again." In 1842, the popular British satire weekly, Punch , "[T]he egg only got larger and larger, and more and more human: when she [Alice] had come within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes and a nose and mouth; and when she had come close to it, she saw clearly that it was Humpty Dumpty himself. ...

Though written for children, nursery rhymes often conceal references to historical events. These hidden stories behind three popular nursery rhymes may not be well known but they certainly make “Humpty Dumpty” a little more interesting. What is the origin of “Humpty Dumpty”? Humpty Dumpty was not originally an egg, as immortalized by John Tenniel, illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass in 1871. But the question of who— or what?— he was has been a mystery for more than 200 years. One recent theory claims the name referred to a cannon used by the army of Charles I in 1648 to deter the opposing army of Parliamentarians. The cannon was mounted on a church tower and defended the town of Colchester for nearly three months. Eventually, the church tower was knocked down and the cannon tumbled into the marsh below, never to be found. Although cinematic, this theory, much like our doomed Dumpty, falls apart: it originates with a 1956 spoof article in The Oxford Magazine. But the term Humtie Dumtie does have a historical connection: a 17th century boiled brandy and ale drink. (Beware: requesting this drink today may get you some egg on the face, for obvious reasons.) The Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (published in 1785), defines a Humpty-dumpty as a “short, dumpy, hump-shouldered person,” while a book on children’s games from the same era describes it as a game involving a fall at the end (à la “Ring Around the Rosie”). Any way we look at it, Humpty Dump...

(Last Updated On: November 19, 2019) You likely will not be able to find any child over the age of six who has not heard the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme before. This massively popular piece of prose has been around for hundreds of years. In that time, it has undergone a fair amount of alterations. In fact, the version of Humpty Dumpty that we now know is vastly different from the likely inspiration of the rhyme. The most well-known form of the nursery rhyme goes like this : Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. This is more or less exactly how the nursery rhyme went when it was Gammer Gurton’s Garland. However, it is quite likely that the story behind this innocent little rhyme is a lot different than what most people picture when they hear Humpty Dumpty. Why An Egg? The first thing that most people notice when they start examining this nursery rhyme is that there is no explicit reference to eggs in the entire thing. So why is it that everyone universally pictures an anthropomorphic egg in their mind whenever they think of Humpty Dumpty? Surprisingly, this is a direct result of the famous writer Lewis Carroll. His classic book Through the Looking-Glass involves many sets of extremely unusual characters, one of which happens to be “However, the egg only got larger and larger, and more and more human: when she had come within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes and...