Editing Hey Diddle Diddle

{{short description|English nursery rhyme}}
{{other uses|Hey Diddle Diddle (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name      = Hey Diddle Diddle
| cover     = Hey Diddle Diddle 2 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
| alt       =
| caption   = Illustration from [[W. W. Denslow]]'s ''Mother Goose'' (1901)
| type      = [[Nursery rhyme]]
|artist=
| written   =
| published = {{circa}} 1765
|genre=
| writer    = Traditional
| composer  =
| lyricist  =
}}
"'''Hey Diddle Diddle'''" (also "'''Hi Diddle Diddle'''", "'''The Cat and the Fiddle'''", or "'''The Cow Jumped over the Moon'''") is an English [[nursery rhyme]]. It has a [[Roud Folk Song Index]] number of 19478.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.vwml.org/record/RoudFS/S298441 | title=Roud Folksong Index S298441 Sing hey , diddle 'diddle, the cat and the fiddle | publisher=[[English Folk Dance and Song Society]] | work=[[Vaughan Williams Memorial Library]] | access-date=May 20, 2016}}</ref>

==Lyrics and music==
[[File:Hey Diddle Diddle 1 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg|thumb|From Denslow's ''Mother Goose'' (1901)]]
A version of the rhyme is:<!-- Do not modify the below text; it is a direct quote from the cited source. -->
<poem style="margin-left: 1em;">
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.<ref name=Opie1997>{{cite book|author=I. Opie and P. Opie|author-link=Iona and Peter Opie|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes| publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]|date= 1977|page= 202|isbn=978-0-19-869111-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000opie/page/202/mode/2up|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref></poem>

The rhyme is the source of the English expression "[[:wikt:over the moon|over the Moon]]", meaning "delighted, thrilled, extremely happy".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Cresswell|first=Julia|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins|year=2010|isbn=978-0199547937|page=279|entry=moon}}</ref>

<score sound raw>
\header { tagline = ##f }
global = { \key f \major \time 6/8 }

chordNames = { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"acoustic guitar (nylon)" \chordmode { \global
  f,2.\p | c,:7 | f, | c,:7 | bes, | f,4. d,:m | f, c,:7 | f,2 s4 \bar "|."
} }

melody = \relative c'' { \global \set Staff.midiInstrument = "vibraphone" \autoBeamOff
  a8 a a a bes c | g g g g f
  g | a4 a8 a bes c | g4.~ g8 r \bar"" \break
  a | bes bes bes bes (c) d | c4 a8 f
  g a | c,4 c8 c d e | f4.~ f8 r8 r \bar "|."
}

verse = \lyricmode {
  Hey! did -- dle, did -- dle,
  the cat and the fidd -- le,
  the cow jumped o -- ver the moon;
  the lit -- tle dog laughed
  to see such sport,
  and the dish ran af -- ter the spoon.
}

\score {
  <<
    \new ChordNames \chordNames
    \melody
    \addlyrics { \verse }
  >>
  \layout { indent = 0 \context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" } }
  \midi { \tempo 4=100 }
}
</score>
The melody commonly associated with the rhyme was first recorded by the composer and nursery rhyme collector [[James William Elliott]] in his ''National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs'' (1870). The word "sport" in the rhyme is sometimes replaced with "fun", "a sight", or "craft".<ref>J. J. Fuld, ''The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk'' (Courier Dover Publications, 5th ed., 2000), {{ISBN|0486414752}}, p. 502.</ref>

==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>

==In fiction==
In [[L. Frank Baum]]'s "Mother Goose in Prose", the rhyme was written by a farm boy named Bobby who had just seen the cat running around with his fiddle clung to her tail, the cow jumping over the Moon's reflection in the waters of a brook, the dog running around and barking with excitement, and the dish and the spoon from his supper sliding into the brook.

In [[P. L. Travers]]'s first ''[[Mary Poppins (book series)|Mary Poppins]]'' book, the titular character tells the children more about a cow they notice in the street, namely that she once jumped over the Moon to cure her dancing affliction, as advised by a king, who references an already-existing story of "the Cow Who Jumped over the Moon".

In [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]’s ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', the rhyme is said to be a remnant of "[[The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late]]", a much longer narrative poem written by the character [[Bilbo Baggins]].

==Meaning==
The numerous theories seeking to explain the rhyme have been largely discredited. [[James Orchard Halliwell]]'s suggestion that it was a corruption of an ancient Greek chorus was probably passed to him as a hoax by [[George Burges]].<ref name=Opie1997/><ref name=Halliwell1849>{{cite book|author=James Orchard Halliwell|author-link= James Halliwell-Phillipps|title=Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales: A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England|date=1849|edition=4th|page=270|publisher= John Russell Smith<!-- |isbn=9780598936196  (invented by Google) -->|url=https://archive.org/details/popularrhymesnur00hallrich/page/n287/mode/2up|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

Another theory is that it comes from a low Dutch [[anti-clerical]] rhyme about priests demanding hard work.<ref name=Opie1997/><ref name=Ker1837> {{cite book|author=Bellenden Ker|author-link=John Bellenden Ker|title=Archaeology of Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes|volume=I|edition=2nd|date=1837|page=252|url=https://archive.org/details/essayonarchaeolo00kerjuoft/page/n269/mode/2up|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref name=Croker1850>{{cite book|author=[[Thomas Crofton Croker]]|title=Recollections of Old Christmas: a Masque|date=1850|page=ii|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VbJUrJKWNOYC&q=low+dutch}}</ref> Other alleged bases for the rhyme include the Egyptian goddess [[Hathor]], the Hebrew [[The Exodus|Flight from Egypt]], or even the relationships of Elizabeth, [[Lady Katherine Grey]], with the Earls of [[Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford|Hertford]] and [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester|Leicester]].{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} The "cat and the fiddle" has also been tied to [[Catherine of Aragon]], [[Catherine I of Russia]], Canton de Fidèle, an alleged governor of [[Calais]], and the game of cat ([[trap-ball]]).<ref name=Opie1997/> An apparently modern theory is that it may refer to the [[constellation]]s of [[Leo (constellation)|Leo]] the cat, [[Lyra]] the fiddle, [[Taurus (constellation)|Taurus]] the cow, [[Canis Minor]] the little dog, and [[Ursa Major]] and [[Ursa Minor]] the Big and Little Dippers, which align with the Moon around the [[winter solstice]].<ref>{{citation|title=Hey Diddle Riddle|url=https://dcwalley.com/hey-diddle-riddle|website=dcwalley.com}}</ref>

The profusion of unsupported explanations was satirised by [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] in his fictional explanations of the poem "[[The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late]]" referenced above.<ref>Steven H. Gale, ''Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese'' (London: Taylor & Francis, 1996), p. 1127.</ref> Although there is some support for the trap-ball theory, scholarly commentators mostly conclude the rhyme is simply meant to be [[nonsense verse]], a type of [[literary nonsense]].<ref name=Opie1997/><ref name=Croker1850/>

== See also ==
*[[List of nursery rhymes]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External Links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|date=2022-08-20|En-Hey Diddle Diddle-article.ogg}}
{{Commons category|position=left}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:English nursery rhymes]]
[[Category:Year of song unknown]]
[[Category:Songs with unknown songwriters]]
[[Category:English folk songs]]
[[Category:English children's songs]]
[[Category:Traditional children's songs]]
[[Category:Songs about cattle]]
[[Category:Songs about cats]]
[[Category:Songs about dogs]]
[[Category:Songs about fiddles]]
[[Category:Songs about the Moon]]