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A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling (1726):
“Namby Pamby Jack-a-Dandy”
by Samuel L. Macey

A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling

Title: “Namby Pamby Jack-a-Dandy”

Medium: nursery rhyme

Publication date: 1726

Publisher: J. Roberts
Written by: Samuel L. Macey


1 characters in this story:

Character
(Click links for info about character
and his/her religious practice, affiliation, etc.)
Religious
Affiliation
Team(s)
[Notes]
Pub. #
app.
Handy Spandy Jack-a-Dandy Handy Spandy Jack-a-Dandy
(lead character)
non-feature lead character
  [stole a piece of candy] J. Roberts 2

A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling is also known as: Pudding and Dumpling Burnt to Pot. Or a Compleat Key to the Dissertation on Dumpling.

The earliest printed version of which nursery rhyme of which we are aware was printed in A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling in 1726:

Namby Pamby Jack-a-Dandy
Stole a Piece of Sugar-Candy
From the Grocer's Shoppy-shop,
And away did Hoppy-hop.

This publication was edited by Samuel L. Macey.

We have seen one source in which the name in the first line of this nursery rhyme, as printed in the 1726 text, is "Nauty Pauty" (instead of "Namby Pamby"). We believe that is a transcription error, and that the archaic style of the lettering in the book caused a transcriber to read the words incorrectly. The title "Namby Pamby" is clearly visible in a larger typeface as the heading of a chapter or section which begins with this nursery rhyme.

This nursery rhyme is best known today in this form:
Handy spandy Jack-a-dandy
Loves plum cake and sugar candy,
He bought some at the grocers shop
And out he came, hop, hop, hop.