“Jack and Jill" is a well-known traditional nursery rhyme. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as no. 10266. Popularly sung in English-speaking world, Jack and Jill nursery rhyme dates back to 18th century and is printed in different numbers of verses, with variations in lyrics. It is made up of quatrains and various theories have been advanced to explain the meaning of lyrics.
Origin and meaning of rhyme
The rhyme has been traditionally observed as a nonsense verse, as Jack and Jill climbed up a hill to find the water, though the water is often to be found at the bottom of hills.
“Jack and Jill” in the lyrics usually referred to a boy and a girl in England. Moreover, a comedy, titled Jack and Jill was performed at the Elizabethan court in 1567-68. The phrase was used twice by Shakespeare. First was in “A Midsummer Night;s Dream”, in which a line as “Jack shall have Jill; Nought shall go ill” is used. The second time, the phrase as “Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill” was used in “Love's Labour's Lost”.
Till 18th century, Jack was commonly used in English-language rhymes and represented an archetypal Everyman hero. While Jill was indicated as a young girl or a sweetheart by the end of the Middle Ages.
However, the wood engraving that contains the first recorded version of the nursery rhyme showed that two boys and not a girl and a boy. Moreover, the word “Gill” was used instead of “Jill”. This earliest printed version of the rhyme particularly comes from a reprint of John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody, which is believed to first published in London in the year 1765.
Origin and meaning of rhyme
The rhyme has been traditionally observed as a nonsense verse, as Jack and Jill climbed up a hill to find the water, though the water is often to be found at the bottom of hills.
“Jack and Jill” in the lyrics usually referred to a boy and a girl in England. Moreover, a comedy, titled Jack and Jill was performed at the Elizabethan court in 1567-68. The phrase was used twice by Shakespeare. First was in “A Midsummer Night;s Dream”, in which a line as “Jack shall have Jill; Nought shall go ill” is used. The second time, the phrase as “Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill” was used in “Love's Labour's Lost”.
Till 18th century, Jack was commonly used in English-language rhymes and represented an archetypal Everyman hero. While Jill was indicated as a young girl or a sweetheart by the end of the Middle Ages.
However, the wood engraving that contains the first recorded version of the nursery rhyme showed that two boys and not a girl and a boy. Moreover, the word “Gill” was used instead of “Jill”. This earliest printed version of the rhyme particularly comes from a reprint of John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody, which is believed to first published in London in the year 1765.
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