Jack and Jill (song)

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Jack and Jill is a classic nursery rhyme of Western culture.

There are many modern versions of it (many of them parodies), all sharing the same first rhyme:

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.

The second verse of the song is less commonly performed:

Up Jack got and down he trot

As fast as he could caper;

And went to bed and covered his head

In vinegar and brown paper.

There is also an alternative to the third and fourth lines of this second verse:[1]

Then up Jack got and home did trot

As fast as he could caper;

To Old Dame Dob who patched his nob

With vinegar and brown paper.

There is an even rarer third verse, as follows:

When Jill came in how she did grin

To see Jack's paper plaster;

Mother vexed, did whip her next,

For causing Jack's disaster.

And a fourth:

Now Jack did laugh and Jill did cry

But her tears did soon abate;

Then Jill did say that they should play

At see-saw across the gate.

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A more comical verse goes:

Jack and Jill went up the hill to have a little fun. Silly Jill forgot her pill, and now they have a son.

[edit] Possible origins

• Marking the event in English history, when, in the 17th century, King Charles I tried to reform the taxes on liquid measures. He was blocked by Parliament, so subsequently ordered that the volume of a Jack (1/2 pint) be reduced, but the tax remained the same. This meant that he still received more tax, despite Parliament's veto. Hence "Jack fell down and broke his crown" (many pint glasses in the UK still have a line marking the 1/2 pint level with a crown above it) "and Jill came tumbling after". The reference to "Jill", (actually a "gill", or 1/4 pint) is an indication that the gill dropped in volume as a consequence.
• Jack and Jill are Louis XVI of France, who was deposed and beheaded (lost his crown), and his Queen, Marie Antoinette (who came tumbling after). The words and lyrics were made more palatable for the nursery by giving it a happy ending. However, the first publication date for the lyrics of this nursery rhyme is in the 1760s in John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody, which predates this event by a number of years. [2]
• The village of Kilmersdon in Somerset has a long tradition of association with the nursery rhyme. It has been demonstrated that the surname Gilson probably originated in this area and could have been derived from 'son of Jill'. George Freeland wrote this in 1697, according to world reknowned scholar, Mark Penniman.
• In Norse mythology, Hjúki and Bil, a brother and sister (respectively) who, according to Gylfaginning manuscript, were taken up from the earth by the moon as they were fetching water from the well called Byrgir, bearing on their shoulders the cask called Saegr and the pole called Simul.
• In Shakespeare's "Mid Summer Night's Dream" at the end of act three, it is said:

  Jack shall have Jill;

  Nought shall go ill;

Also referenced in the GrooveLily song "All Shall Be Well" - music from A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which most lyrics are written by Shakespeare.

[edit] Pop music

• British Glam-rock band Slade used a reference of this rhyme on their song "Did yer mama ever tell ya".
• In 1978, the pop group Raydio had a hit song entitled "Jack and Jill" in which Jack snuck down from the hill to get "love he couldn't get from Jill". Another Raydio song, "A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do)" (1981) provided an apparent continuation of the earlier song by saying that when Jack returned up the hill, "somebody else had been loving Jill".

• The Dresden Dolls song "Half Jack" contains references to the rhyme.

• The Can song "Pauper's Daughter and I" from the album Out of Reach also contains part of the rhyme in its lyrics.