The meaning of Humpty Dumpty has remained mysterious for centuries, but there are some possible historical explanations for the nursery rhyme.
Most masses learned this pop greenhouse verse as children : Humpty Dumpty sat on a bulwark / Humpty Dumpty had a great fall / All the king ’s horses and all the tycoon ’s serviceman / Couldn’t put Humpty together again . But what does the rime about Humpty Dumpty mean , exactly ?
Library of CongressHumpty Dumpty diminish from a wall in a 1913 political cartoon .
While most envision the character as an egg , thanks to contemporary depictions , the truth behind Humpty Dumpty is a bit murkier . The rhyme may refer to bungling sot , or it may have its base in English history .
Library of CongressHumpty Dumpty falling from a wall in a 1913 political cartoon.
We all know what happened to Humpty Dumpty on the paries . These are some theories of how he got up there .
The Origins Of The Popular Nursery Rhyme
in pastel / flickrA 1916 illustration of humpty dumpty falling from a wall .
The Humpty Dumpty rhyme first emerged in 1797 when it was recorded by Samuel Arnold , an English composer and organist . From there , American Songwriterreports that it was include inNational Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs(1870 ) and performed in a Broadway production .
These other variation of the Humpty Dumpty rhyme were slightly dissimilar from the one most people recognize today , however . The 1797 version went :
in pastel/flickrA 1916 illustration of humpty dumpty falling from a wall.
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall , Humpty Dumpty had a cracking surrender . Four - score Men and Four - score more , Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before .
Whereas a slenderly later version read :
Humpty Dumpty sate on a rampart , Humpti Dumpti had a expectant fall;Threescore man and threescore more , Cannot billet Humpty dumpty as he was before .
Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’sThrough The Looking Glass(1871).
Significantly , neither of these earlier versions depict Humpty Dumpty as an ball . That did n’t make out until 1871 , when Lewis Carroll’sThrough the Looking - Glasspresented him as an egg - like character for the first metre .
Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’sThrough The Looking Glass(1871 ) .
“ … the egg only got larger and larger , and more and more human : when she had come within a few yards of it , she get word that it had eyes and a nose and mouth ; and when she had come closely to it , she see clear that it was Humpty Dumpty himself , ” Carroll spell . “ ‘ It ca n’t be anybody else ! ’ she tell to herself . ‘ I ’m as certain of it , as if his name were write all over his face . ' ”
Public DomainHumpty Dumpty is depicted as an egg today, but that’s not what the phrase always meant.
So what did these rime about Humpty Dumpty mean ? If not originally an egg , then what was he ? The resolution might dwell in old English slang
The Literal Meaning Of Humpty Dumpty
AsHistory Dailywrites , the phrase “ humpty dumpty ” was n’t just invented as a peculiar bit of phrase . It do from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , when “ humpty dumpty ” touch on to someone who was overweight and clumsy .
Public DomainHumpty Dumpty is draw as an egg today , but that ’s not what the phrase always meant .
What ’s more , the idiom could also refer to a strong , eighteenth - one C alcohol-dependent drink . Back then , a “ humpty dumpty ” was a drink made by boiling brandy and ale .
Public DomainSome speculate that the true meaning of Humpty Dumpty has to do with King Richard III.
give that the import of Humpty Dumpty was once both a drink and an fleshy , bungling man , some have speculated that the original nursery rhyme refers to an overweight drunk who fall off a wall . In this adaptation , Humpty Dumpty might simply have been too drunk and clumsy to get back up “ where he was before . ”
Is this the lawful Humpty Dumpty story ? Perhaps , but thenursery rhymemay also be a callback to one of two significant events in English chronicle .
Historical Meanings Of Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty may be largely seen as an luckless egg today , but it ’s possible that the phrase is actually a extension to King Richard III , a fifteenth - century monarch , or to the English Civil War , which started in 1642 .
King Richard add up to magnate through questionable means in 1483 , when he is said to have engage his two young nephews — the legal heirs to the English pot — in the Tower of London , and possibly even had them killed . His Erolia minutilla as king was short - live , however , as Henry Tudor defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 .
Public DomainSome speculate that the true meaning of Humpty Dumpty has to do with King Richard III .
So , what does King Richard III have to do with the Humpty Dumpty origin report ? “ Humpty Dumpty ” may have been a cruel name for the king , who suffered from scoliosis and a hunched back . What ’s more , his horse ’s name at the Battle of Bosworth Field was allegedly “ Wall , ” and Richard reportedly vanish from his buck during the struggle .
Since the king drop dead on the battlefield , his men would have been ineffectual to put him back “ together again . ”
Yet it ’s also possible that the true Humpty Dumpty meaning has to do with a unlike period in English account , the English Civil War , which took place between 1642 and 1651 .
During that dispute , legend states that a carom dubbed “ Humpty Dumpty ” was mounted on the walls protecting the townspeople of Colchester , which was held by forces loyal to the business leader . As they battle with Parliamentarians , the cannon supposedly return from the wall and shattered . And thus the “ king ’s human ” could n’t put Humpty Dumpty back together .
Did one of these events chair to the Humpty Dumpty greenhouse rhyme ? Today , it ’s unclear . possibly Humpty Dumpty was a clumsy , chubby drunk ; maybe Humpty Dumpty was intend to represent the English king or an crucial English battle . Or maybe someone just think the words sounded comical put together and jotted down a rhyme .
Whatever the true meaning of Humpty Dumpty , the baby’s room verse has sure as shooting try its staying business leader . After come forth more than 200 years ago , it seems to be as popular as ever .
After reading about the meaning of Humpty Dumpty , discover the grisly meaning behind the democratic child ’s rime “ London Bridge Is Falling Down . ” Or , go inside the foreign question of whether or not thetrue story of the Muffin Manhas to do with a London in series cause of death .
