Nurse Truelove's New-Year's-Gift, or the Book of Books for Children
Title: “This Is the House That Jack Built”
Medium: nursery rhyme
Publication date: 1755
Publisher: John NewberyRoud Folk Song Index Number: 20584
12 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. |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
[built "the house that Jack built"] | John Newbery | 2 | |||||||
|
|
rat [ate malt in house that Jack built] |
John Newbery | 2 | ||||||
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|
cat [killed rat that ate malt in house that Jack built] |
John Newbery | 2 | ||||||
|
|
dog [worried cat that killed rat that ate malt in Jack's house] |
John Newbery | 2 | ||||||
|
|
cattle [tossed dog that worried cat that killed rat] |
John Newbery | 2 | ||||||
|
|
[milked cow that tossed dog that worried cat that killed rat] | John Newbery | 2 | ||||||
|
|
[kissed the maiden all forlorn] | John Newbery | 1 | ||||||
|
|
[married tattered man to forlorn maid] | John Newbery | 1 | ||||||
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|
chicken [rooster whick woke the priest all shaven and shorn] |
John Newbery | 1 | ||||||
|
[kept cock that crowed and woke priest] | John Newbery | 1 | |||||||
|
|
horse | John Newbery | 1 | ||||||
|
|
dog | John Newbery | 1 |
The origins of this nursery rhyme (which is also a cumulative tale) are unclear. There is a possible reference to the rhyme in The Boston New Letter of 12 April 1739 and the line: "This is the man all forlorn, &c". The earliest known printed version of the nursery rhyme was in Nurse Truelove's New-Year's-Gift, or the Book of Books for Children, printed in London in 1755.
