Read on, as we look into the lyrics, meaning behind, and history of the hugely popular nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill'.
What are the lyrics to Jack and Jill?
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Up Jack got and home did trot
As fast as he could caper;
Went to bed to mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper.
Jill came in and she did grin
To see his paper plaster
Mother, vex’d, did whip her next
For causing Jack's disaster
When was the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill' written?
It is thought the nursery rhyme 'Jack and Jill' dates back to the 18th century, but it could be much older - no one really knows. Over time two more verses got added, including one where poor old Jill gets into trouble!
What is the meaning behind 'Jack and Jill'?
The origins of the rhyme is unknown but that doesn't stop theories circulating. Anglican priest Sabine Baring-Gould suggested that the rhyme relates to a 13th-century Icelandic fable Gylfaginning, in which the Moon seizes brother and sister Hjuki and Bil while they draw water from a well.
Other theories suggested are the executions of Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley in 1510, or could it refer to King Charles I 's attempt to raise extra revenue by reducing the volume of a Jack (1/8 pint), while keeping the tax the same - the cunning so-and-so!
Jack and Jill have been commonly used as a way of describing a boy and girl for centuries and there is the famous the proverb "Every Jack (shall/must) have his Jill", which Shakespeare used in two of his plays.
In short, we will probably never know for certain the exact origins of this much-loved nursery rhyme. That doesn't stop it being one of the most familiar and best loved in the entire nursery rhyme canon.
Top illustration by Dorothy M. Wheeler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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