We all might feel a bit sad to hear that Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again! Have you ever tried to find out the reason for this inability to mend Humpty’s broken back? Well, the reason is that Humpty Dumpty was an egg!

Scholars tell us that this rhyme was five hundred years old, and became famous in 15th century England.  They even feel that this rhyme mocked a great man, or a nobleman who fell on bad times and was shunned by his king! They say the real Humpty could even have been the fifteenth- century monarch Richard III. In the 1600’s ‘’humpty dumpty’’ was the name given to a hot toddy of ale and brandy. Much later, it became a British word for ‘’a short clumsy person of either sex.’’

There is one more version of this rhyme where the last line reads Could not set Humpty Dumpty up again. The answer to this riddle as we have already learned is that Humpt was an egg. There is also a game for girls in the olden days called ‘’Humpty Dumpty.” 

The nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty is seen again in the book Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Caroll. Here too the last line changes to ‘’Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again,’’ which made Alice say ‘’is much too long for the poetry.’’

Yet another ending for this poem is ‘’Threescore men and threescore more,
Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before.’’

Most of us would like to think that Humpty Dumpty was just an egg, so we need not grieve over his falling or the fact, that no-one could mend him again. Luckily, we can always make an omelette or fry him up and eat him, not forgetting to remove the shells! Or better still, we could bake a cake with him!

Who was Mother Goose?

All the nursery rhymes we have loved and enjoyed are clubbed under the name of Mother Goose. Who was this great lady? She was most probably a French lady. In 1697, a very famous French writer called Charles Perrault published a small book in Paris filled with well known tales called ‘’Tales of My Mother Goose.’’ But her identity was hidden and the mystery was not revealed. All the readers got to see was the picture on the frontispiece of a sweet old lady by her fireside enchanting her family with great stories.

However the stories in this book were the well known fairy tales like Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood etc. But Mother Goose has finally become well known through all the nursery rhymes that have delighted the children of the world. The first treasure chest of rhymes under her name was published in London around 1765 by John Newberry. Then 25 years later this book was brought out in America by Isaiah Thomas of Massachusetts.

Today there are too many editions of Mother Goose rhymes illustrated by various, exciting new artists. Each one is as enthralling as the previous one, and you can choose the one you like the most. My favourites are still the older versions with illustrations by the classical artists like Arthur Rackham and Kate Greenaway, who illustrated the Humpty Dumpty rhyme many many years ago.