The earliest known version was published in Samuel Arnold's Juvenile Amusements in 1797 with the lyrics:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.


Four-score Men and Four-score more,

Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.

William Carey Richards (1818–1892) quoted the poem in 1843, commenting, "when we were five years old ... the following parallel lines... were propounded as a riddle ... Humpty-dumpty, reader, is the Dutch or something else for an egg".

A manuscript addition to a copy of Mother Goose's Melody published in 1803 has the modern version with a different last line: "Could not set Humpty Dumpty up again".
It was published in 1810 in a version of Gammer Gurton's Garland. (
Note: Original spelling variations left intact.)

Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall,

Humpti Dumpti had a great fall;

Threescore men and threescore more,

Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before.

In 1842, James Orchard Halliwell published a collected version as:
Humpty Dumpty lay in a beck.


With all his sinews around his neck;

Forty Doctors and forty wrights

Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty to rights!

The modern-day version of this nursery rhyme, as known throughout the UK since at least the mid-twentieth century, is as follows:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; 

All the King's horses

And all the King's men,

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in the 17th century the term "humpty dumpty" referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale.
The riddle probably exploited, for misdirection, the fact that "humpty dumpty" was also eighteenth-century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy person.
The riddle may depend upon the assumption that a clumsy person falling off a wall might not be irreparably damaged, whereas an egg would be.
The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known.
Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as "Boule Boule" in French, "Lille Trille" in Swedish and Norwegian, and "Runtzelken-Puntzelken" or "Humpelken-Pumpelken" in different parts of Germany—although none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English.
The earliest known version was published in Samuel Arnold's Juvenile Amusements in 1797 with the lyrics:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Four-score Men and Four-score more,

Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.
William Carey Richards (1818–1892) quoted the poem in 1843, commenting, "when we were five years old ... the following parallel lines... were propounded as a riddle ... Humpty-dumpty, reader, is the Dutch or something else for an egg".
A manuscript addition to a copy of Mother Goose's Melody published in 1803 has the modern version with a different last line: "Could not set Humpty Dumpty up again". It was published in 1810 in a version of Gammer Gurton's Garland. (Note: Original spelling variations left intact.)
Humpty Dumpty sate on a wall,

Humpti Dumpti had a great fall;

Threescore men and threescore more,

Cannot place Humpty dumpty as he was before.
In 1842, James Orchard Halliwell published a collected version as:
Humpty Dumpty lay in a beck.

With all his sinews around his neck;

Forty Doctors and forty wrights

Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty to rights!
The modern-day version of this nursery rhyme, as known throughout the UK since at least the mid-twentieth century, is as follows:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; 

All the King's horses

And all the King's men,

Couldn't put Humpty together again.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in the 17th century the term "humpty dumpty" referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale. The riddle probably exploited, for misdirection, the fact that "humpty dumpty" was also eighteenth-century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy person. The riddle may depend upon the assumption that a clumsy person falling off a wall might not be irreparably damaged, whereas an egg would be. The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known. Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as "Boule Boule" in French, "Lille Trille" in Swedish and Norwegian, and "Runtzelken-Puntzelken" or "Humpelken-Pumpelken" in different parts of Germany—although none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English.
Humpty Dumpty