This Is the House That Jack Built

"This Is the House That Jack Built"
Roud #20584

Randolph Caldecott illustration from The complete collection of pictures & songs, published 1887. Digitally restored.
Song
Written England
Published 1755
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer(s) Traditional
Language English

"This Is the House That Jack Built" is a popular British nursery rhyme and cumulative tale. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20584. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2035.[1]

Lyrics

This is perhaps the most common set of modern lyrics:

This is the house that Jack built.
This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cat that killed the rat
That ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the judge all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the rooster that crowed in the morn
That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the farmer sowing his corn
That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.
This is the horse and the hound and the horn
That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn
That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn
That woke the judge all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tattered and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn
That tossed the dog that worried the cat
That killed the rat that ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Some versions use "cheese" instead of "malt", "priest" instead of "judge", "cock" instead of "rooster", the older past tense form "crew" instead of "crowed", or "chased" in place of "killed". Also in some versions the horse, the hound, and the horn are left out and the rhyme ends with the farmer.

Narrative technique

This Is the House That Jack Built illustrated by Randolph Caldecott

It is a cumulative tale that does not tell the story of Jack's house, or even of Jack who built the house, but instead shows how the house is indirectly linked to other things and people, and through this method tells the story of "The man all tattered and torn", and the "Maiden all forlorn", as well as other smaller events, showing how these are interlinked.

Origins

It has been argued that the rhyme is derived from an Aramaic hymn Chad Gadya (lit., "One Young Goat") in Sepher Haggadah, first printed in 1590; but although this is an early cumulative tale that may have inspired the form, the lyrics bear little relationship.[2] It was suggested by James Orchard Halliwell that the reference to the "priest all shaven and shorn" indicates that the English version is probably very old, presumably as far back as the mid-sixteenth century.[3][4] There is a possible reference to the song in The Boston New Letter of 12 April 1739 and the line: "This is the man all forlorn, &c". However, it did not appear in print until it was included in Nurse Truelove's New-Year's-Gift, or the Book of Books for Children, printed in London in 1755.[5] It was printed in numerous collections in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.[2] Randolph Caldecott produced an illustrated version in 1878.

Cherrington Manor, a handsome timber-framed house in North East Shropshire, England, is reputed to be the actual house that Jack built. There is a former malt house in the grounds.[6]

Syntactic structure

Each sentence in the story is an example of an increasingly deeply nested relative clause. The last version, "This is the horse...", would be quite difficult to untangle if the previous ones were not present. See the Noun Phrase for more details about postmodification of the noun phrase in this manner.

Illustration by Walter Crane

The rhyme continues to be a popular choice for illustrated children's books, with recent examples by Simms Taback[7] and Quentin Blake[8] showing how illustrators can introduce a fresh angle and humour into a familiar tale. The popularity of the rhyme can be seen in its use in a variety of other cultural contexts, including:

In literature and journalism

An unflattering 1819 caricature of the Prince Regent by George Cruikshank, illustrating "The Political House that Jack Built".

In politics

This is the house that Jack built.
This is the bomb that fell on the house that Jack built.
This is the Hun who dropped the bomb that fell on the house that Jack built.
This is the gun that killed the Hun who dropped the bomb that fell on the house that Jack built.

In television and film

In sports

See also

References

  1. D. L. Ashliman, The House That Jack Built: an English nursery rhyme of folktale type 2035
  2. 1 2 I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 229-32.
  3. James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales: A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England, p. 6. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  4. English Translation of Hebrew source. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  5. William S. Baring-Gould and Ceil Baring-Gould, The Annotated Mother Goose (New York, 1962), p. 25.
  6. Twinkletrax Children's Songs.
  7. Taback, Simms (2004). This is the house that Jack built (null ed.). New York: Puffin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-240200-9.
  8. Blake, John Yeoman; illustrated by Quentin (1996). The do-it-yourself house that Jack built (null ed.). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-055323-9.
  9. Peter Appleton, "The Responsibility," in 20th Century Poetry and War.
  10. Reynolds, Paul (4 January 2006). "The hum you hear is from lobbyists". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-06-05.
  11. Suspended in Language (2004) Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis. pub G.T. Labs
  12. "Project Gutenberg".
  13. Marcus Wood, Radical Satire and Print Culture 1790 - 1822, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-811278-5
  14. "Internet Movie Database". IMDb. 4 April 1959. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  15. "Internet Movie Database". IMDb. 5 March 1966. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  16. Tunis, Ron (1967). "The House That Jack Built". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  17. "Sapphire and Steel - The TV Series". h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
  18. "Episode 3.05 - Kisses Sweeter Than Wine". Frasier Online Episode Guide. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  19. Aretha Franklin, "The House That Jack Built" Chart Positions Retrieved 20 September 2013
  20. "EMP Museum - Music + Sci-fi + Pop Culture".
  21. "METALLICA - Encyclopedia Metallica - Song Info - The House That Jack Built:". Encycmet.com. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  22. http://adtr.com/releases/what_separates_me_from_you
  23. "BBC - Music - Review of Jesca Hoop - The House That Jack Built". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  24. "Yankee stadium history". New York Yankees. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
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