Hey Diddle Diddle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids "Hey Diddle Diddle" |
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Illustration by William Wallace Denslow
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| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | c. 1765 |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
| Composer(s) | Kinsley |
| Lyricist(s) | Evans |
"Hey Diddle Diddle" (also "Hi Diddle Diddle", "The Cat and the Fiddle", or "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon") is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.
Lyrics and music
A common modern version of the rhyme is
Hey diddle, diddle!
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
The rhyme is the source of the English expression "over the moon", meaning "delighted, thrilled, extremely happy".
<score %vorbis="1"%%T257066%> \new Staff << \clef treble \key f \major { \time 6/8 \partial 2. \relative a' { a8 a a a bes c | g8 g g g f g | a4 a8 a bes c | g4.~ g4 \bar"" \break a8 | bes8 bes bes bes c d | c4 a8 f g a | c,8 c c c d e | f4.~ f4. \bar"" \break } } %\new Lyrics \lyricmode { %} >> \layout { indent = #0 } \midi { \tempo 4. = 56 } </score> The melody commonly associated with the rhyme was first recorded by the composer and nursery rhyme collector James William Elliott in his National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs (1870). The word "sport" in the rhyme is sometimes replaced with "fun","a sight", or "craft".
Origins
The rhyme may date back to at least the sixteenth century. Some references suggest it dates back in some form a thousand or more years: in early medieval illuminated manuscripts a cat playing a fiddle was a popular image. There is a reference in Thomas Preston's play A lamentable tragedy mixed ful of pleasant mirth, conteyning the life of Cambises King of Percia, printed in 1569 that may refer to the rhyme:
They be at hand Sir with stick and fiddle;
They can play a new dance called hey-diddle-diddle.
Another possible reference is in Alexander Montgomerie's The Cherry and the Slae from 1597:
But since you think't an easy thing
To mount above the moon,
Of your own fiddle take a spring
And dance when you have done.
The name "Cat and the Fiddle" was a common name for inns, including one known to have been at Old Chaunge, London by 1587.
The earliest recorded version of the poem resembling the modern form was printed around 1765 in London in Mother Goose's Melody with the lyrics:
Hey diddle diddle,
The Cat and the Fiddle,
The Cow jump'd over the Moon,
The little dog laugh'd to see such Craft,
And the Fork ran away with the Spoon.
