During the English Civil War in 1648, the town of Colchester was under siege. Two of the most popular theories link Humpty Dumpty to two separate historical events. Most modern rhymes, after all, are created with the intent of being silly, repetitive, and enjoyable for children to repeat rather than for their historical significance (think “Miss Mary Mack” and other clapping games). Nursery rhymes are commonly linked to historical events, but it is difficult to prove that imagery in the nursery rhymes represents historical places and figures. Perhaps, in this instance, we could take advice from Humpty Dumpty himself, as seen in Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.” People will always attribute more meaning to nursery rhymes than was initially intended. Today, the answer is so well known that the character of Humpty Dumpty has taken on the appearance of an egg and the rhyme is not considered to be a riddle at all, but a story.īecause of this switch from “riddle” to “story”, many people today believe that there is more meaning to the nursery rhyme than is given in the lyrics.
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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. It has also been a nickname attributed to someone who has had too much alcohol (perhaps imbibing the drink of the same name).Īs 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. In the 1700s, it was also a term used to describe a short, clumsy person. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “humpty dumpty” was first used in the 17 th century and referred to brandy boiled with ale. These publications did not include the first use of the term “humpty dumpty,” though. 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.
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The first known publication of Humpty Dumpty was included in Juvenile Amusements by Samuel Arnold in 1797. The version of the rhyme that most children learn today goes like this:Īll the king’s horses and all the king’s men Nevin asks: Why is “Humpty Dumpty” always depicted as an egg?Īs 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.