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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Gammer Gurton’s Garland’s Version
James Orchard Halliwell’s Version
Humpty Dumpty lay in a beck.
With all his sinews around his neck;
Forty Doctors and forty wrights
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty to rights!
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late nineteenth-century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott‘s National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs.[1] Its origins are obscure, and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings.
The character of Humpty Dumpty was popularised in the United States by actor George L. Fox (1825–1877). As a character and literary allusion, he has appeared or been referred to in many works of literature and popular culture, particularly English author Lewis Carroll‘s Through the Looking-Glass (1872), in which he was described as an egg. The rhyme is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No. 13026.
Source: Wikipedia