Hence “had a great fall”.Ī professor David Daube once had a fourth theory to add. During the English Civil War, history says, a one-eyed gunner named Thompson managed to get a cannon – colloquially called ‘Humpty Dumpty’, to the top of the tower of St Mary at the Walls church and wreak untold destruction on the forces below, before return cannon fire dislodged the pair of them. We could assume Humpty Dumpty is the King, the wall is his reign and fight to preserve power, the fall is his defeat, and ‘All the king’s horses and all the king’s men’ the army that failed to prevail.Īnother theory is that Humpty is actually a cannon. Others have suggested that Humpty Dumpty is King Richard III of England, who is supposed to have been humpbacked and who was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Some historians believe Humpty Dumpty was simply a device for a riddle around breakable things. There are other theories around the meaning of ‘Humpty Dumpty’.
Read more: There are lyrics to ‘Happy Birthday’ that you literally never knew about What is the meaning behind the nursery rhyme? Fox in his Broadway pantomime Humpty Dumpty, and by Lewis Caroll in his weird and wonderful Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Perhaps due to his fragility revealed in the fall, he has often been portrayed as an egg – including by actor George L. Humpty Dumpty is the protagonist of the English nursery rhyme, ‘Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall’. It’s not clear who originally conceived the four-line poem. 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.īefore that, the rhyme can be traced back to the 18th century, and variations in lyrics (see below) have been recorded over time. 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’?
We unpack the origins, history, lyrics and meaning of one of the most well-known children’s songs in the English-speaking world. Humpy Dumpty sat on the wall is one of the nation’s most enduringly popular nursery rhymes.īut who was Humpty Dumpty? What brought him to that wall? And how did he fall off? We explore the origins, history and lyrics of one of the most popular children’s songs in the English-speaking world.
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