The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #161794   Message #3847897
Posted By: Joe_F
31-Mar-17 - 06:15 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Humpty Dumpty
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Humpty Dumpty
According to The Annotated Mother Goose, the oldest published version is (essentially) no. 3:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
Threescore men and threescore more
Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before.

-- Gamma Gurton's Garland, 1810; but the horses-and-men version is about as old, and indeed, the rhyme as a whole must be much older.

Note that this is a riddle, the answer being "an egg"; but for most of us, "Through the Looking-Glass" was a spoiler.