{"product_id":"2940152478761","title":"Children's Nursery Rhymes: The Dark History \u0026 Origins of Kid's Nursery Rhymes","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtract;\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHumpty Dumpty\u003cbr\u003eHumpty Dumpty sat on the wall,\u003cbr\u003eHumpty Dumpty had a great fall;\u003cbr\u003eAll the king’s horses and all the king’s men\u003cbr\u003eCouldn’t put Humpty together again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe real Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon used by the Royalist forces during the English Civil War of 1642 to 1651. Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle led the king’s men and overpowered the Parliament stronghold of Colchester early in 1648.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThey grimly held on to it while the Parliamentarians, led by Thomas Fairfax, encircled and besieged the town in what became known as the Siege of Colchester. The supporters of Charles I almost won the day – all thanks to his doughtiest defender, Humpty Dumpty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn pole position, as it were, on top of the church tower of St Mary-at-the-Walls, One-Eyed Thompson, the gunner, managed to blast away the attacking Roundhead troops with rousing success for eleven whole weeks. That is, until the top of the church tower was eventually blown away, sending Humpty Dumpty crashing to the ground outside the city wall, where it buried itself in deep marshland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe king’s cavalry (the horses) and the infantry (the men) hurried to retrieve the cannon in order to repair it, but they couldn’t put Humpty together again and without their weapon of mass destruction they were soon overrun by Fairfax and his soldiers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are another two verses preceding the better-known one that tell the tale in more detail:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn sixteen hundred and forty-eight,\u003cbr\u003eWhen England suffered the pains of state,\u003cbr\u003eThe Roundheads laid siege to Colchester town\u003cbr\u003eWhere the king’s men still fought for the crown.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall,\u003cbr\u003eA gunner of deadliest aim of all.\u003cbr\u003eFrom St Mary’s Tower his cannon he fired,\u003cbr\u003eHumpty Dumpty was its name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten in the same vein as ‘Hitler has only Got One Ball’ (a mocking song that raised the British spirits during the darker days of the Second World War), ‘Humpty Dumpty’ was a piece of propaganda that passed from town to town as the news of the king’s defeat spread across England and the Parliamentarian troops slowly returned home, teaching even their youngest children to recite the tale of their victory.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut if the rhyme is entirely military in origin, how come we all think of Humpty Dumpty as an egg? The answer to that question is found in the late nineteenth century in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (1871).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSir John Tenniel’s iconic illustration shows Alice in deep discussion with Humpty Dumpty as he sits upon a high wall. Tenniel, clearly taken with the idea of the impossibility of Humpty Dumpty’s being put back together again once he’d fallen off the wall, has him shaped as an egg with short arms and legs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRead on....\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Albert Jack","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47110635323632,"sku":"2940152478761","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940152478761_p0.jpg?v=1764024759","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940152478761","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}