Jack and Jill: a nursery rhyme explained

 

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.

Up Jack got and down he trot,
As fast as he could caper;
He went to bed and covered his head
With vinegar and brown paper.

 

There have been several proposed explanations of this familiar nursery rhyme, and everyone is free to choose which one they consider most likely.

One suggestion is that Jack and Jill are King Louis XVI of France and his Queen, Marie Antoinette. Louis certainly ‘broke his crown’ by being executed in 1793, and Marie Antoinette’s head did indeed come tumbling after thanks to the guillotine. The poem was first published in 1795, so in this respect at least the dates do match.

The villagers of Kilmersdon in Somerset think that they have the answer, due to a tragedy that occurred in 1697. A young couple did their courting up a hill, away from the prying eyes of the local gossips. Jill became pregnant, but just before the baby was born Jack was killed when a rock fell off the hill and landed on his head. Jill died in childbirth only a few days later.

Another possibility is that it has to do with the attempt by King Charles I to reform taxation on alcohol. Having been prevented by Parliament from raising the duty, he reduced the measures by which alcohol could be served. One of these measures was the half pint, known as a Jack, and the quarter point, known as a Gill. Charles reduced both the Jack and the Gill, while keeping the prices exactly the same, thus gaining his duty increase by the back door.

But perhaps the true explanation is even older, namely an ancient Norse tale concerning a young brother and sister named Hjuki (pronounced Juk-ee) and Bil. The moon god caught them on a dark night as they were stealing a pail of water from the Bygrir Well. They were promptly spirited away to the moon, where Scandinavians have long supposed that they can be seen carrying a bucket of water attached to a long pole.

So which one of these theories – if any – do you think is most likely to be the true origin?

© John Welford