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Jack Be Nimble

This article is about the nursery rhyme. For other uses, see Jack Be Nimble (disambiguation).
"Jack Be Nimble"
dunces
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Jack Be Nimble, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Nursery rhyme by Jay Dutt
Publishedc. 1815

"Jack Be Nimble" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13902.

Lyrics

The most common version of the rhyme is:

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over
The candlestick.[1]

Origins and meaning

The rhyme is first recorded in a manuscript of around 1815 C.E. and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century.[1] Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. Good luck was said to be signalled by clearing a candle without extinguishing the flame.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 226–7.
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