Hey Diddle Diddle

"Hey Diddle Diddle"
Roud #19478

The Cow jumped over the moon, according to William Wallace Denslow
Song
Written England
Published c. 1765
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer Traditional
Language English
In this Randolph Caldecott rendition, a dish, spoon, and other utensils are anthropomorphized while a cat in a red jacket holds a fiddle in the manner of a string bass.

"Hey Diddle Diddle" (also "Hi Diddle Diddle", "The Cat and the Fiddle", or "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon") is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.

Lyrics

A common modern version of the rhyme is:

Hey diddle diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed,
To see such fun,

And the dish ran away with the spoon.[1]
  1. ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 203–4.

Origins

The rhyme may date back to at least the sixteenth century. There is a reference in Thomas Preston's play A lamentable tragedy mixed ful of pleasant mirth, conteyning the life of Cambises King of Percia, printed in 1569 that may refer to the rhyme:

They be at hand Sir with stick and fidle;

They can play a new dance called hey-didle-didle.[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Opie1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Another possible reference is in Alexander Montgomerie's The Cherry and the Slae from 1597:

But since you think't an easy thing

To mount above the moon,
Of your own fiddle take a spring
And dance when you have done.[1]

  1. ^ C. R. Wilson and M. Calore, Music in Shakespeare: a Dictionary (London: Continuum, 2005), ISBN 0826478468, p. 171.

The name "Cat and the Fiddle" was a common name for inns, including one known to have been at Old Chaunge, London by 1587.[1]

The earliest recorded version of the poem in close to the modern form was printed in London in Mother Goose's Melody around 1765, with the lyrics:

Hey diddle diddle,

The Cat and the Fiddle,
The Cow jump'd over the Moon,
The little dog laugh'd to see such Craft,
And the Dish ran away with the Spoon.[1]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Opie1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Meaning

There are numerous theories about the origin of the rhyme, including: James Orchard Halliwell's suggestion that it was a corruption of ancient Greek, probably advanced as a result of a deliberate hoax; that it was connected with Hathor worship; that it refers to various constellations (Taurus, Canis Minor, etc.); that it describes the Flight from Egypt; that it depicts Elizabeth, Lady Katherine Grey, and her relationships with the earls of Hertford and Leicester; that it deals with anti-clerical feeling over injunctions by Catholic priests for harder work; that it describes Katherine of Aragon (Katherine la Fidèle); Catherine, the wife of Peter the Great; Canton de Fidèle, a supposed governor of Calais and the game of cat (trap-ball).[2] This profusion of unsupported explanations was satirised by J.R.R. Tolkien in his fictional explanations of 'The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late'.[3] Most scholarly commentators consider these to be unproven and state that the verse is probably meant to be simply nonsense.[2]

Melody

The melody commonly associated with the rhyme was first recorded by the composer and nursery rhyme collector James William Elliott in his National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs (1870).[4]

Adaptations

Notes

  1. ↑
  2. 1 2
  3. ↑ S. H. Gale, Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese (London: Taylor & Francis, 1996), p. 1127.
  4. ↑ J. J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (Courier Dover Publications, 5th edn., 2000), ISBN 0486414752, p. 502.
  5. ↑ Animator.ru: «A FANTASTIC TALE»
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