Hey Diddle Diddle
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| "Hey Diddle Diddle" | |
|---|---|
The Cow jumped over the moon, according to William Wallace Denslow
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| Song | |
| Written | England |
"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.[1]
Lyrics
A common modern version of the rhyme is:
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.[2]
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed,
To see such fun,
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.[2]
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.[3]
The name "Cat and the Fiddle" was a common name for inns, including one known to have been at Old Chaunge, London by 1587.[3]
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.[2]
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'.[4] 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).[5]
Adaptations
- 1978 Soviet animated film "A Fantastic Tale" (Russian: Чудеса в решете) by Andrei Khrzhanovsky, based on translation of Samuil Marshak.[6]
- Hey Diddle Diddle was featured in Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories.
- Hey Diddle Diddle Right Up the Middle, a slang term for a military strategy of frontal assault
- Hey Diddle Diddle Ray Rice up the middle.
- A version of Hey Diddle Diddle was featured in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
- The Black Sabbath song Supernaut from Vol. 4 mentions being on the moon and looking for the dish that ran away with the spoon
- It features in a reggae song by Sylford Walker – "What a Lie".
- The illustration appeared as a backdrop when Dennis Hopper was offered a cup of coffee by Luana Anders at a merry-go-round in the 1961 movie Night Tide.
- In the musical Rent, the character Maureen sings a version of the rhyme, entitled "Over The Moon".
- In the animated movie Shaun the Sheep Movie, an homage to the nursery rhyme is shown in one scene.
- In the animated series American Dad! Season 7 episode 6 There Will Be Bad Blood a cow is seen jumping over the moon only to fall to Earth near the end.
Notes
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 203–4.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 C. R. Wilson and M. Calore, Music in Shakespeare: a Dictionary (London: Continuum, 2005), ISBN 0826478468, p. 171.
- ↑ S. H. Gale, Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese (London: Taylor & Francis, 1996), p. 1127.
- ↑ J. J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (Courier Dover Publications, 5th edn., 2000), ISBN 0486414752, p. 502.
- ↑ Animator.ru: «A FANTASTIC TALE»
