2007-08-22 17:26:55 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Preschool
Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme portrayed as an anthropomorphic 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.
The fact 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 & Norwegian; though none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English.
2007-08-22 17:34:22 · answer #1 · answered by Angela B 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again. It doens't say that he was an egg but the nursery rhyme pictures indicate that he was a big ol egg and then when he fell he cracked into pieces.
2007-08-22 17:31:12 · answer #2 · answered by Ms. Fabulous 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't and it really doesn't imply it either. But if you look at the nursery rhyme books as far back as 1890, the pictures of Humpty, show him as a very well dressed egg.
Take an egg, crack it open, let the insides fall into a cup.
Now, get out some flour and water and make a paste.
Put the contents of the egg back in the shell, glue the shell together. Can you do it?
2007-08-22 22:00:49 · answer #3 · answered by ♫ Bubastes, Cat Goddess♥ 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It would not say Humpty Dumpty became into an egg in any respect. Nor became into the verse from any bona fide nursery rhyme. It became into initially a British political comic strip from someplace interior the mid to latter 1800's & the dig being that the newborn-kisser were cartooned as an egg -- as in "Egghead" -- somebody with an inflated ego & assumed mind yet who incredibly did no longer have any draw close by any capacity regarding the economics of that factor (nor the socioeconomics). wish i ought to grant you extra precise counsel yet i'm purely recalling obscure memories from a Civilizations direction I took some years in the past.
2016-11-13 05:33:08 · answer #4 · answered by lauramore 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who was Humpty Dumpty? he was not an egg!!
Humpty Dumpty was a colloquial term used in 15th century England to describe someone who was fat or obese - giving rise to lots of theories pertaining to the identity of Humpty Dumpty. However, in this case the question should be not Who was Humpty Dumpty but What was Humpty Dumpty? Humpty Dumpty was in fact an unusually large canon which was mounted on the protective wall of "St. Mary's Wall Church" in Colchester, England. It was intended to protect the Parliamentarian stronghold of Colchester which was in the temporarily in control of the Royalists during the period of English history, described as the English Civil War ( 1642 - 1649). A shot from a Parliamentary canon succeeded in damaging the wall underneath Humpty Dumpty causing the canon to fall to the ground. The Royalists 'all the King's men' attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to another part of the wall but even with the help of ' all the King's horses' failed in their task and Colchester fell to the Parliamentarians after a siege lasting eleven weeks.
2007-08-28 08:10:18 · answer #5 · answered by oldenoughttobeyourmother 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't, but is implied by the picture of an egg that always accompanies the rhyme. And, then there is the last line that seems to have been forgotten over the years.
All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
So, they all had scrambled eggs for breakfast.
2007-08-23 06:05:48 · answer #6 · answered by soupkitty 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Humpty Dumpty was a cannon; here's previous Y!answer:
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=1006033116230
2007-08-23 18:42:21 · answer #7 · answered by andyg77 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It does not say it was an egg-
When I taught preschool we learned the rhyme w/ the kids...One day I brought in an illustrated book, and they were all oohing and aahing and saying "Oh that's why they coulnd put him back together, because he was an egg!!"
We just assume everyone knows that, I guess
2007-08-22 17:56:27 · answer #8 · answered by Navyexwife 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it does not say he was an egg.... i think.... but, there are pictures of humpty as an egg in the book.
2007-08-22 17:35:30 · answer #9 · answered by mike j 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't. It is actually some kind of political reference. Could be interesting to look up. Try wikipedia.
2007-08-22 17:29:59 · answer #10 · answered by stoneinthestream 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋