Humpty Dumpty

DESCRIPTION: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Threescore men and threescore more Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before." (Or, ... All the kings horses And all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland)
KEYWORDS: death riddle
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Greig/Duncan8 1681, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text, 1 tune)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 233, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #670, pp. 268-269, "(Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall)"
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel, p. 80, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text)
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 51, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text)
Newell-GamesAndSongsOfAmericanChildren, #70, "Humpty Dumpty" (description of the game only; it is not clear it uses this rhyme)
Roberts-SangBranchSettlers, #136, "Humpy Bumpy" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 115, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Tim Devlin, _Cracking Humpty Dumpty: An Investigative Trail of Favorite Nursery Rhymes_, Susak Press, 2022, pp. 51-60, "Humpty Dumpty" (1 text plus many variants and alternate sources)
Roud #13026
NOTES [359 words]: These days, we all know this from Lewis Carroll -- though, interestingly, we don't use his last line ("Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty in his place again," which Alice correctly notes doesn't scan). It's found in the chapter "Humpty Dumpty" in Through the Looking Glass. But the first form quoted here is that found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, which according to the Baring-Goulds is the first appearance of the rhyme in print.
They claim, however, that the rhyme is much older as a riddle (presumably it ended with a question asking who Humpty was, the answer being "an egg"; compare Devlin, p. 56). The Opies, p. 10, cite a version from Saxony in which Humpty becomes Hümpelkin-Pümpelken (with umlauts on the u's) and a Danish version about Lille Trille.
Humpty Dumpty was also a character in John Bowles's The Little Riding School, 1754-1764 (Devlin, p. 57).
The incomparable Katherine Elwes Thomas, The Real Personages of Mother Goose, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1930, pp. 38-39, claims this is about Edward IV, Richard III, and the latter's death at Bosworth. One wonders what the original rhyme might have been, since it would have had to be in Middle English. But others have also made this suggestion, as noted on pp. 51-52 of Devlin.
Jack-PopGoesTheWeasel claims that this dates back to the English Civil War and the Royalist defense of Colchester, in which a cannon named Humpty Dumpty played a role. The defense failed when the cannon fell from the walls. Possible, of course, but Jack cites no source. Devlin, pp. 52-56, mentions the same notion, and is able to trace it to one David Daube in 1956 -- but notes that the tale was told of Gloucester before it was transferred to Colchester. Nonetheless it is the latter version that became widespread despite a complete lack of evidence. Daube also mentioned the possibility that Humpty was not an egg but a tortoise (Devlin, p. 53).
Devlin, p. 57, points out an alcoholic beverage called "humpty dumpty," with the name first attested in 1698. His final conclusion, p. 60, is that the drink came first, then a Humpty Dumpty riddle, with the nursery rhyme the last step in the process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BGMG670

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