Asymmetrical Information

'Cos of the illustrations in Lewis Carroll's books.

I have to admit that I like the image of a canon being shattered -- but a [sic] might be added there.

There's a nice account of the seige of Colchester here: http://www.sealedknot.org/knowbase/docs/0003_ColSeige.htm

See the entries for June 15 and July 15.

Because the nursery rhyme loses much of its force if it's thought to refer to a cannon or to any other mechanical object. All the king's horses and all the king's men--that is, all the powers on earth--could conceivably put a cannon back together, but all the powers on earth cannot put a broken egg back together. That the nursery rhyme might have had an earlier, less interesting, meaning hardly matters. It is the universal meaning, yoked to the egg, that has sustained its place in English-speaking culture. But, as you're an English major, I hardly need to explain this to you.

I doubt this is true. I don't remember this story being in "The Annotated Mother Goose", and searching on that led to this page. None of the web pages that claim this seem to actually give any source for these historical tidbits.

I bet you thought "Ring aroung the rosie" was about the Black Plague but read this
http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm

The idea that a lot of nursery rhymes have hidden meanings has lead to entire dissertations.

Well shoot, as long as we're discussing Humpty Dumpty, we simply must return to this:

Un petit d’un petit
S’étonne aux Halles
Un petit d’un petit
Ah! degrés te fallent
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu’importe un petit d’un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes.

Tous droits réservés par Luis d'Antin van Rooten (c)

Be sure to say it with your thickest French accent for the proper effect...

OK so I g--gle some of the Un Petit crap and one of the links takes me back to this site here:

http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/004042.html

Sometimes I think I need an advanced degree to get some of the jokes.

PS why wont your comments take "g--gle" shoot more weirdness?

It is the universal meaning, yoked to the egg, that has sustained its place in English-speaking culture.

I had to read that three times before I decided that you used the right word there. Well played!

Traditional rhymes, fairy tales, stories have all under gone "pop" cultural changes. They may have originally had more adult, or serious or even horrorific meanings. It does not invalidate the way were view them today.

I know very well why I JUST KNOW Humpty was/is an egg. The Little Golden Book of nursery rhymes with Disney cartoon characters made it quite clear.

raf nailed it: we all believe Humpty Dumpty was an egg because the illustrations in every book of nursery rhymes show an egg. So the real question is, why do the nursery rhyme illustrators think it's an egg?

fagv xaqkitiahg.

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