Humpty Dumpty was the nickname of a cannon used in the English Civil War, not an egg as depicted in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. Other nursery rhymes, such as “Jack and Jill” and “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary,” have dark historical origins.
If you can’t trust an ancient nursery rhyme, what can you believe? Well, get ready: Humpty Dumpty is never described as an egg in the lyrics of the nursery rhyme, despite how he is depicted in Lewis Carroll’s 1872 classic Through the Looking-Glass. Instead, “Humpty Dumpty” was the nickname for a cannon used by the Royalists during the English Civil War of 1642-1649. Perched on a wall surrounding the town of Colchester, the enemy blew the wall to pieces and the cannon fell to the ground, no longer usable. All that most modern readers know about Humpty is from the first of the poem’s three stanzas. The other two continue to elucidate its wartime origins. Carroll’s depiction of Humpty Dumpty involves Alice and Humpty discussing semantics and the power of words. Yet it’s John Tenniel’s iconic illustration of that scene that cemented Humpty Dumpty’s appearance as an egg in the collective imagination.
Other nursery rhymes from yesteryear:
“Jack and Jill,” a seemingly nonsensical nursery rhyme about children rolling down a hill, originated in France and obliquely references King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, both of whom were beheaded.
“Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” is thought to have been written about Queen Mary I of England and her penchant for executing Protestants. Her garden, apparently, refers to an ever-growing cemetery.
“Georgie Porgie” ostensibly satirizes George Villiers, the 1st Duke of Buckingham, a scoundrel who is said to have courted royalty – men and women – including King Charles I.
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