Editing Hey Diddle Diddle (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Hey.diddle.diddle.jpeg|thumb|In this [[Randolph Caldecott]] rendition, a dish, spoon, and other utensils are [[anthropomorphized]] while a cat in a red jacket holds a fiddle in the manner of a string bass.]]
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.<ref>''[[Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts]]'' (Penguin Random House, 2016, 1st ed), [[Christopher de Hamel]], p. 323</ref> There is a reference in [[Thomas Preston (writer)|Thomas Preston]]'s play ''A lamentable tragedy mixed ful of pleasant mirth, conteyning the life of [[Cambyses II|Cambises]] King of Percia'', printed in 1569 that may refer to the rhyme:

<blockquote><poem>They be at hand Sir with stick and fiddle;
They can play a new dance called hey-diddle-diddle.<ref name=Opie1997/></poem></blockquote>

Another possible reference is in [[Alexander Montgomerie]]'s ''The Cherry and the Slae'' from 1597:

<blockquote><poem>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.<ref name=Wilson&Calore2005p171>C. R. Wilson and M. Calore, ''Music in Shakespeare: a Dictionary'' (London: Continuum, 2005), {{ISBN|0826478468}}, p. 171.</ref></poem></blockquote>

The name "Cat and the Fiddle" was [[pub names|a common name for inns]], including one known to have been at [[Old Change|Old Chaunge]], London by 1587.<ref name=Wilson&Calore2005p171/>

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:
<blockquote><poem>High 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 dish ran away with the spoon.<ref name="MG1904">{{cite book|title=Mother Goose's Melody|type=facsimile reproduction|location=London|publisher=[[A. H. Bullen]]|year=1904|orig-year=1791|page=[https://archive.org/details/mothergoosesmelo00pridiala/page/32/mode/2up 32]|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref></poem></blockquote>

This is accompanied with the following commentary:
<blockquote><poem>It must be a little dog that laugh'd, for a great dog would be ashamed to laugh at such nonsense.<ref name="MG1904" /></poem></blockquote>