Humpty Dumpty - the story behind the rhyme
The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the term Humpty Dumpty refers to a drink of brandy boiled with ale.
Since the 15th Century it was a colloquial term, like dumpy, used to describe someone who was small and fat - giving rise to lots of theories on the identity of the character.
One popular theory was that it was an unusually large cannon which was mounted on the protective wall of "St Mary's Wall Church" in Colchester. It was intended to protect the Parliamentarian stronghold of Colchester, which was temporarily in control of the Royalists during the Civil War (1642-1649).
This theory is often stated as a fact. However, the tale is in a poem of four verses written as a spoof for the Oxford Magazine in 1956 by Professor David Doube. It has no substance in fact, despite the adoption by the tourist industry of Colchester.
The rhyme, more or less as we know it, was posed as a riddle when it was first published in 1810. The answer was of course, an egg. Similar riddles exist in French, Norwegian and Swedish.
Another theory suggests that Humpty Dumpty was Shakespeare's Richard III, the wall being either the name of his horse (White Surrey) or a reference to the supporters who deserted him. During the battle of Bosworth Field, Richard fell off his steed and was said to have been "hacked into pieces". (The play depicts Richard as a hunchback, other historical sources say that he was not.)
Humpty appears in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass (1872) where he discusses semantics and pragmatics with Alice. (No wonder modern children prefer Harry Potter!)
The story has been quoted in law suits, short stories, detective fiction, novels, cartoons and in many popular songs. Our pantomime was a new version - beginning with the building of the wall...
