Jack Be Nimble
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"Jack Be Nimble" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13902.
LyricsEdit
The most common version of the rhyme is:
- Jack be nimble,
- Jack be quick,
- Jack jump over the candlestick.<ref name=Opie1997>I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 226–7.</ref>
Origins and meaningEdit
File:Jack Be Nimble 2 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
Jack is a dog, in Denslow's version
The rhyme is first recorded in a manuscript of around 1815 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century.<ref name=Opie1997/> Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. Good luck was said to be signalled by clearing a candle without extinguishing the flame.<ref name=Opie1997/>