Who came up with the nursery rhyme about "Humpty Dumpty?"?

Question

Just curious if someone was deliberately making fun of a President.

Answer 1

* According to an insert taken from the East Anglia Tourist Board in England, Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon during the English Civil War. It was mounted on top of the St Mary's at the Wall Church in Colchester defending the city against siege in the summer of 1648. Although Colchester was a Royalist stronghold, it was besieged by the Roundheads for 11 weeks before finally falling. The church tower was hit by enemy cannon fire and the top of the tower was blown off, sending "Humpty" tumbling to the ground. Naturally all the King's horses and all the King's men (Royalist cavalry and infantry respectively) tried to mend "him" but in vain. Other reports have Humpty Dumpty referring to a sniper nicknamed One-Eyed Thompson, who occupied the same church tower.

Visitors to Colchester can see the reconstructed Church tower as they reach the top of Balkerne Hill on the left hand side of the road. An extended version of the rhyme gives additional verses, including the following:

In Sixteen Hundred and Forty-Eight
When England suffered the pains of state
The Roundheads lay siege to Colchester town
Where the King's men still fought for the crown
There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall
A gunner of deadliest aim of all
From St. Mary's Tower his cannon he fired
Humpty-Dumpty was its name...

* In another theory, Humpty Dumpty referred to King Richard III of England, the hunchbacked monarch, the "Wall" being either the name of his horse (called "White Surrey" in Shakespeare's play), or a reference to the supporters who deserted him. During the battle of Bosworth Field, he fell off his steed and was said to have been "hacked into pieces". (However, although the play depicts Richard as a hunchback, other historical evidence suggests that he was not.)

* The story of Cardinal Wolsey's downfall is depicted in the children's nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty. At length Cawood Castle (Cawood, a village in Yorkshire, seven miles southwest of York) passed to Cardinal Wolsey, who let it fall into disrepair in the early part of his career (1514 – 1530), due to his residence at the Court, devotion to temporal affairs and his neglect of his diocesan duties. King Henry VIII sent Wolsey back home in 1523 after he failed to obtain a divorce from the Pope – a huge mistake on Wolsey’s part. Wolsey returned to the castle and began to restore it to its former grandeur. However, he was arrested for high treason in November, 1530 and ordered to London for trial. He left on 6 November, but took ill at Leicester and died in the Abbey there on 29 November.

Answer 2

Humpty Dumpty is a character in a Mother Goose rhyme, portrayed as an anthropomorphized egg. Most English-speaking children are familiar with the rhyme:

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.
That Humpty Dumpty is an egg is not actually stated in the rhyme. In its first printed form, in 1810, it is a riddle, and exploits for misdirection the fact that "humpty dumpty" was 18th-Century reduplicative slang for a short, clumsy person. Whereas a clumsy person falling off a wall would not be irreparably damaged, an egg would be. The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known. Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as Boule Boule in French, or Lille Trille in Swedish; though none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English.

Answer 3

Actually, there are words BEFORE that. Here they are: In Sixteen Hundred and Forty-Eight When England suffered the pains of state The Roundheads lay siege to Colchester town Where the king's men still fought for the crown There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall A gunner of deadliest aim of all From St. Mary's Tower his cannon he fired Humpty-Dumpty was its name Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. I found this by googling "all versus of humpty dumpty." Think how quickly you could have found your own answer if you had just used a search engine.

Answer 4

I think it was 'All the Kings men'... because they were just too damn lazy but didn't want to report that, so they made it sound like they really tried.

And how would horses have helped the situation?

Poor Humpty, he didn't really have a chance... they probably pushed him. He was knocked off.... Obviously the holder of vital government secrets.

Answer 5

Mother Goose

Answer 6

www.thecoo.edu/~mwilken/nursery_rhymes.htm
my.homewithgod.com/jpinspirations/hdumpty.htm
www.thevirtualvine.com/humpty.html
www.mrsjonesroom.com/teachers/lifeskillnurseryrhymes.html
www.classbrain.com/artteensm/uploads/humpty.