WEBVTT - Was Humpty Dumpty Always an Egg?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogelbaum. Here we need to talk about Humpty Dumpty.

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<v Speaker 1>You may well have grown up with this nursery rhyme,

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<v Speaker 1>but just in case, let's review it goes. Humpty Dumpty

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<v Speaker 1>sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

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<v Speaker 1>All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>put Humpty together again. It's a simple verse, but there's

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<v Speaker 1>a lot going on here. Who is this Humpty character?

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<v Speaker 1>Why was he sitting and why did he fall? Why

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<v Speaker 1>on earth was the monarchy involved? And why couldn't they

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<v Speaker 1>put the poor guy back together? Furthermore, is he an egg?

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<v Speaker 1>In popular culture today, Humpty Dumpty is almost always portrayed

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<v Speaker 1>as an anthropomorphic egg. He has legs and arms coming

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<v Speaker 1>off of his large egg body slash head, and he's

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<v Speaker 1>wearing clothing. But the poem doesn't say the Humpty is

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<v Speaker 1>an egg. The thing is this poem was probably originally

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<v Speaker 1>intended to be a riddle. If you can't put him

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<v Speaker 1>back together after a fall, what is he? An answer

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<v Speaker 1>is that he's an egg, which is part and parcel

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<v Speaker 1>of modern portrayals. A spoiler alert Okay. The Humpty Dumpty

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<v Speaker 1>rhyme first appeared in seventeen ninety seven in a book

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<v Speaker 1>called Juvenile Amusement written by one Samuel Arnold. In the original,

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<v Speaker 1>the first two lines were the same, but the last

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<v Speaker 1>two lines read four score men and four score more.

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<v Speaker 1>Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before. It's

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<v Speaker 1>not really material here, but a score is twenty men,

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<v Speaker 1>so this means eighty plus eighty or one hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>sixty men total. Anyway. There have been a few other

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<v Speaker 1>variations since then, but they all amount to about the

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<v Speaker 1>same thing. Humpty falls best efforts can't set him right. Certainly,

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<v Speaker 1>the exact wording could influence the answer of the riddle.

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<v Speaker 1>The original I'd have referred to a famous historical person,

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<v Speaker 1>and other versions that talk about being unable to set

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<v Speaker 1>Humpty upright again might refer to a different creature, like

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<v Speaker 1>maybe a tortoise. An illustration from eighteen oh three in

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<v Speaker 1>Mother Goose's Melody portrays him as a normal, non egg

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<v Speaker 1>human boy. So why is Humpty so firmly an egg today?

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<v Speaker 1>Blame Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and what Alice

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<v Speaker 1>found there. The sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a

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<v Speaker 1>first published in eighteen seventy one. The book devotes a

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<v Speaker 1>whole chapter to Humpty Dumpty. But here's the passage where

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<v Speaker 1>Alice first comes upon him. The egg only got larger

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<v Speaker 1>and larger, and more and more human. When she had

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<v Speaker 1>come within a few yards of it, she saw that

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<v Speaker 1>it had eyes and a nose and a mouth. And

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<v Speaker 1>when she had come close to it, she saw clearly

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<v Speaker 1>that it was Humpty Dumpty himself. It can't be anybody else,

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<v Speaker 1>she said to herself. I'm as certain of it as

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<v Speaker 1>if his name were written all over his face. Then

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<v Speaker 1>refers to Humpty as looking like an egg. Allowed, and

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<v Speaker 1>he's very offended. At any rate, a humanoid egg fits

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<v Speaker 1>right in with the story's surreal cast of characters. But

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<v Speaker 1>this was the first time Humpty Dumpty was depicted as

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<v Speaker 1>the character that we're familiar with today, complete with an

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<v Speaker 1>image by the book's illustrator, John Tenniel. The Alice books

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<v Speaker 1>were and remain popular, and future illustrators of the nursery

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<v Speaker 1>rhyme have often paid homage to Tenniel's depiction of the character. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>so we know why he's an egg today, But was

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<v Speaker 1>he always an egg? What was the inspiration for this

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<v Speaker 1>riddle in the first place. Let's go back even further.

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<v Speaker 1>The first known appearance of the term humpty dumpty in

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<v Speaker 1>print was in sixteen ninety in a slang dictionary, where

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<v Speaker 1>it's defined as a drink being ale boiled with brandy.

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<v Speaker 1>There's no real explanation for this slang term, although strong

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<v Speaker 1>beer was sometimes called hum around that time. Also, so

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<v Speaker 1>if you think this drink sounds gross, there's no accounting

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<v Speaker 1>for taste. But there were a lot of warm beer

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<v Speaker 1>or wine plus liquor cocktails happening back then. Skipping ahead

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<v Speaker 1>to seventeen eighty five, one Francis Gross noted in his

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<v Speaker 1>book A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue that the

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<v Speaker 1>term could refer to either the drink or to a short,

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<v Speaker 1>clumsy person, which is sort of getting somewhere, okay. In

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen forty two, a Punch magazine, a popular British satire publication,

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<v Speaker 1>claimed that Humpty was a symbol for Cardinal Thomas Walsey,

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<v Speaker 1>who was appointed in eighteen fifteen during King Henry the

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<v Speaker 1>Eighth's reign. Their claim was meant to be funny, but

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<v Speaker 1>it's not totally implausible. Wallsy apparently enjoyed sitting on the

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<v Speaker 1>walls of the high tower of Cowwood Castle in York,

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<v Speaker 1>and he notably fell from grace with King Henry for

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<v Speaker 1>not obtaining the Pope's permission for the king to divorce

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<v Speaker 1>his first wife and Mary Anne Boilen. Wallsey was ultimately

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<v Speaker 1>arrested by the King's men. Another theory, with perhaps a

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<v Speaker 1>few cracks in it, is that Humpty Dumpty is an

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<v Speaker 1>allusion to King Richard the Third. Richard has often been

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<v Speaker 1>depicted as having a grotesquely rounded, hunched back, partially because

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<v Speaker 1>of negative propaganda in Shakespeare's play about him. The Bard's

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<v Speaker 1>patron at the time was one Fernando Stanley, who was

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<v Speaker 1>a direct descendant of one of Richard's enemies, so it's

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<v Speaker 1>no wonder that in the play insults are hurled about

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<v Speaker 1>him like that he's a poisonous, bunch backed toad. In reality,

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<v Speaker 1>we now know, after his remains were found buried under

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<v Speaker 1>a parking lot in twenty twelve, that Richard only had

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<v Speaker 1>scoliosis mild enough that it would have made one shoulder

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<v Speaker 1>sit a bit higher than the other back to Humpty Dumpty.

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<v Speaker 1>Though Richard was killed in the Battle of Bosworth in

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<v Speaker 1>fourteen eighty five, kicking off the reign of the Tudors.

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<v Speaker 1>It's claimed that Richard the Third's horse was named Wall,

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<v Speaker 1>and that Richard died after falling off of Wall and

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<v Speaker 1>being attacked beyond, and no matter what his men tried

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<v Speaker 1>to do. Yet another theory is absolutely untrue. It was

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<v Speaker 1>written up in a spoof article in Oxford Magazine in

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen fifties, but it wound up gaining popularity. It

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<v Speaker 1>purported that Humpty Dumpty was in fact a cannon that

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<v Speaker 1>was used in Colchester, England, in sixteen forty eight to

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<v Speaker 1>defend against a siege during the English Civil War. As

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<v Speaker 1>with many towns at the time, Colchester's castle, churches and

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<v Speaker 1>village were surrounded by a protective stone wall. The forces

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<v Speaker 1>defending the town put a cannon on top of the

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<v Speaker 1>church tower at Saint Mary's at the Walls Church and

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<v Speaker 1>nicknamed the cannon Humpty Dumpty. When it came under fire

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<v Speaker 1>by Parliamentary armies, the tower toppled and the cannon was

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<v Speaker 1>destroyed and couldn't be put back together again again. That

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<v Speaker 1>one's a definite spoof. It seems that Humpty Dumpty has

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<v Speaker 1>some secrets in that egghead of his after all these years,

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<v Speaker 1>but his legend lives on characters like Humpty, Alexander Dumpty

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<v Speaker 1>in the film Puts in Boots, and the albeit minor

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<v Speaker 1>batman villain Humphrey Dumpler, whose attempts to fix things that

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<v Speaker 1>he perceives as broken always and in disaster. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article was Humpty Dumpty really an egg?

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<v Speaker 1>On how Stuffworks dot Com? Written by Rebecca Treon. Brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang.

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