Jack Sprat

"Jack Sprat" Roud #19479
Written by	Traditional
Published	1639
Written	England
Language	English
Form	Nursery rhyme

"Jack Sprat" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19479.

Contents 1 Lyrics 2 Origins 3 In popular culture 4 Notes

Lyrics

The most common modern version of the rhyme is:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.

His wife could eat no lean.

And so between them both, you see,

They licked the platter clean.^[1]

Origins

The name Jack Sprat was used of people of small stature in the sixteenth century.^[1] This rhyme was an English proverb from at least the mid-seventeenth century.^[1] It appeared in John Clarke's collection of sayings in 1639 in the form:

Jack will eat not fat, and Jull doth love no leane.

Yet betwixt them both they lick the dishes cleane.^[1]

The saying entered the canon of English nursery rhymes when it was printed in Mother Goose's Melody around 1765, but it may have been adopted for use with children much earlier.^[1]

In popular culture

• Pittsburgh Steelers iconic middle linebacker of the 1970s, Jack Lambert, had a nickname of "Jack Splat" that played on the nursery rhyme. He was noted for his excellent tackling skills as well as intense play, hence opposing ball carriers would go "splat" when tackled.

• In a scene deleted from Mel Brooks's film Young Frankenstein, the Monster encounters a cowardly English highwayman somewhat inexplicably named Jack Sprat.

• In the comic book series Fables, Mrs. Sprat is briefly seen. She is, as the rhyme tells, very fat indeed. Jack, seen standing behind his wife on page 13 of issue #30, is later mentioned as one of the victims of the zephyr son of Snow White and Bigby Wolf. She also appears in later story lines as a Nurse assisting Dr. Swineheart.

• In Jasper Fforde's novels The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, Jack Spratt is the protagonist. Jack is a Detective Inspector in Reading, investigating crimes committed by nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters. He also possesses traits of Jack the Giant Killer and Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk". True to the rhyme, Spratt hates fat, often going to great lengths to trim it from his food. Spratt has remarried, following the death of the wife mentioned in the rhyme; Jack cites it as a result of eating too much fat .

• In G. Paul Lucas's artworks, mixed-media photomontage is used to offer a contemporary interpretation of Jack Sprat and his rotund wife. Inspired from early childhood by this Mother Goose rhyme, Lucas creates a world in which the slovenly, beer-drinking Jack is "taken care of" in more ways than one by his dissatisfied, hot-tempered wife.^[2]

• Episodes of both television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide use the name Jack Sprat. Sabrina uses it as a fake name when she drinks "Boy Brew" to become a guy to listen in on conversations Harvey has with his friends. The new kid janitor who tries to take over Gordy's job is named Jack Sprat in the episode "New Kid".

• In a segment of "Vital Information" on an episode of All That, one of the bits of information was, "Contrary to popular belief, Jack Sprat can eat fat. You just gotta hold Jack down and shove that fat down his throat!"

Notes