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Humpty Dumpty

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Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg. The fact that Humpty Dumpty is an egg is not actually stated in the rhyme. In its first printed form, in 1810, it is a riddle, and exploits for misdirection the fact that "humpty dumpty" was 18th century reduplicative slang for a short, clumsy person. Whereas a clumsy person falling off a wall would not be irreparably damaged, an egg would be. The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known. Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as Boule-Boule in French, or Lille Trille in Swedish & Norwegian; though none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English.

4514976Humpty Dumpty
Versions of Humpty Dumpty include:
Humpty Dumpty as he appears in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Illustration by John Tenniel.

In collections of nursery rhymes

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Quoted within other works

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See also

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