Humpty Dumpty: Difference between revisions

 

From 1996 the website of the [[Colchester]] tourist board attributed the origin of the rhyme to a cannon recorded as used from the church of St Mary-at-the-Wall by the Royalist defenders in the [[Siege of Colchester|siege of 1648]].<ref name=BSHistorian/> In 1648 Colchester was a walled town with a castle and several churches and was protected by the city wall. The story given was that a large cannon, which the website claimed was colloquially called Humpty Dumpty, was strategically placed on the wall. A shot from a Parliamentary cannon succeeded in damaging the wall beneath Humpty Dumpty which caused the cannon to tumble to the ground. The Royalists, or Cavaliers, "all the King's men", attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall, but because the cannon was so heavy "All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again". In his 2008 book ''Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes'' author [[Albert Jack]] claimed that there were two other verses supporting this claim.<ref>A. Jack, ''Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meanings of Nursery Rhymes'' (London: Allen Lane, 2008), ISBN 1-84614-144-3.</ref> Elsewhere he claimed to have found them in an "old dusty library, [in] an even older book",<ref>[http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/blogs/real-story-humpty-dumpty-albert-jack "The Real Story of Humpty Dumpty, by Albert Jack"], ''Penguin.com (USA)''. Retrieved 24 February 2010.</ref> but did not state what the book was or where it was found. It has been pointed out that the two additional verses are not in the style of the seventeenth century, or the existing rhyme, and that they do not fit with the earliest printed version of the rhyme, which do not mention horses and men.<ref name=BSHistorian>[http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/putting-the-dump-in-humpty-dumpty/ "Putting the 'dump' in Humpty Dumpty"] ''The BS Historian''. Retrieved 22 February 2010.</ref>

 

==In ''Through the Looking-Glass''==