"Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down, and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after"
Jack and Jill- one of the most common nursery rhymes that children know. It tells a short story of a boy and a girl who went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, but surprisingly, the boy fell down for some reason, and the girl came tumbling after. That would seem really funny for a kid at the age of two or so; I also found that funny when I was a kid. But when I grew up, I realized the something was wrong with this rhyme. Why would Jack suddenly fall down without any reason at all? Yes, it might be comical and funny, but still, I wanted to know the real answer. So I did my research and searched the internet for some answers.
In a website called http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com, Perpetualplum wrote this article entitled "6 Nursery Rhymes with Sinister Origins" In this article, one of those six nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill. Perpetual plum says:
"This nursery rhyme originally comes from France. It referred to King Louis XVI (Jack) and Queen Marie Antoinette (Jill). A horribly graphic and dark tale, it beautifully details the commonly occurring beheadings of 1793, aptly name the Reign of Terror.
Dismembered heads survive at least eight seconds after being removed from the body. During the berief time that it takes for oxygen to cease being pumped into the head, the person still remains concious and can see. The executioner would hold up the head to the crowds not only to gross the people and place fear in their hearts, but also to let the head know it was detached from its body"
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| King Louis XVI |
King Louis XVI was a really cruel king. From the moment he he was crowned, France's economy shot downwards, the crops died one by one and the prices of the food and bread rapidly went up. The livestock of many merchants went backrupt and many people were dying of hunger. No one was happy about the state of their conty at that time. To top it all off, Louis married an Austrian empress named Maria Antoinette. Most of the people in the 1700's were xenophobes (xenophobe- a person that has an intense irrational dislike or fear towards anyone who is not or their kind; racist), and they blamed Marie as the cause of all their problems.
Louis did not know how to handle the state of his country at the time so he decided to assemble the States-General. This is a national assembly that is represented by three "estates" of the French people. These are: the nobles, the clergy, and the common folk. The States- General had not been assembled since 1641, and the 'commoners' used this opportunity and declared themselves as the "National Assembly", igniting the French Revolution.
The commoners revolted because they were already suffering from the rule of Louis XVI. He proclaimed himself as a "god" and that all the people must follow his orders. If they defy him, they would be sentenced to death. While his kingdom was suffering from hunger and famine, he and his wife were still living in luxury and extravagance.
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| Queen Maria Antoinette |
As per my opinion, this might be the hidden meaning of this nursery rhyme is this: Jack and Jill went up the hill (Louis XVI and Maria Antoinette reach the highest position in France as King and Queen) to fetch a pail of water (they were doing illegal things while they were reigning over France) Jack fell down and broke his crown (King Louis XVI was executed VIA Guillotine in Place de la Revolution, Paris, France on the 21st of January 1793) and Jill came tumbling after (Maria Antoinette was executed nine months later; October 16, 1793, in the same place)
I think that this nursery rhyme was created in order to spread the word of Louis XVI's death to the whole France, without alarming the monarchy, and since most of the common folk did not know how to read or write, creating this song made it much easier for them to understand.
So what do you think? Does this nursery rhyme still sound cute for you?
~Ken Ricafort~
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