Humpty Dumpty

"Humpty Dumpty"
Illustration by W. W. Denslow, 1904
Nursery rhyme
Published	1797

Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle, and 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 eighteenth-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 rhyme is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No. 13026.

As a figure in nursery culture, the character appears under a variety of near-rhyming names, such as Lille Trille (Danish), Wirgele-Wargele (German), Hümpelken-Pümpelken (German) and Hobberti Bob (Pennsylvania Dutch).^[2] As a character and literary allusion, Humpty Dumpty was referred to in several works of literature and popular culture in the 19th century. Lewis Carroll in particular made him an animated egg in his 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, while in the United States the character was popularised by George L. Fox as a clown of that name in the Broadway pantomime musical Humpty Dumpty (1868).^[3]