Jack Be Nimble

DESCRIPTION: "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over The candlestick."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844 (Halliwell); c. 1815 (Douce MS., according to the Opies)
KEYWORDS: nonballad
FOUND IN: New Zealand US(So,SW)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Sutton-Smith-NZ-GamesOfNewZealandChilden/FolkgamesOfChildren, "(Jack, be nimble)" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 255, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #411, p. 194, "(Jack be nimble)" (1 text)
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 90, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 71, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 44, "Jack Be Nimble" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, #282 "Jack be nimble" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, Roger Abrahams, "Ghastly Commands: The Cruel Joke Revisited," Volume 11, Number 4 (Winter 1961) p. 241, "(Jack-be-nimble)" (1 short text, a parody)
Roud #13902
NOTES [76 words]: Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, p, 59, connects this (as well as "This Is the House That Jack Built") with the Jack Horner of "Little Jack Horner," fame, whom she contends made off with a property deed in the time of Henry VIII (see "Little Jack Horner" for this possibility). Given that the only connection between the two appears to be the word "Jack," this must be regarded as dubious. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: OO2255

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