Talk:This Is the House That Jack Built

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Word substitutions[edit]

Edit: 24/11/2006 - The version that was previously here had "judge" in place of "priest" and "rooster" in place of "cock", neither of which are in the original form of the rhyme. I have added a note at the bottom of the rhyme about these subsititions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.170.194.17 (talk) 03:36, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

One problem I have with this is that the existing set of lyrics are unsourced. But if it is British in origin, "judge" must be wrong since judges cannot and never have been able to solemnise matrimony. That was a priestly function and subsequently something that may be carried out in other ways, but never by judges. Francis Davey (talk) 21:14, 2 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Connection to Jewish song[edit]

The Origin and History quotes "The rhyme is derived from a Hebrew hymn in Sepher Haggadah". This looks to me to be a reference to the Aramaic hymn Chad Gadya sung at the Passover Seder and recorded in the Haggadah of Pesach. The source (Reference 1, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales: A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England, p. 6]) claims this is the origin of the tale, but variants are found around the world, and it might be safer to say that it's the earliest example of this type of cumulative tale that we have.--Annielogue (talk) 07:16, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That connection is now expressed with doubt: "although this is an early cumulative tale that may have inspired the form, the lyrics bear little relationship". I see no reason to keep this article in Category:Jewish folk songs, and I am removing that Category tag. --Thnidu (talk) 05:44, 17 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

File:Randolph Caldecott illustration2.jpg to appear as POTD soon[edit]

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Randolph Caldecott illustration2.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on April 30, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-04-30. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng {chat} 22:13, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Picture of the day

A woodcut engraving by English illustrator Randolph Caldecott for the nursery rhyme and cumulative tale "This Is the House That Jack Built", which appeared in an 1887 book of children's stories. The poem does not actually tell the story of Jack building a house, but instead shows how the house is indirectly linked to numerous things and people. It is believed to date back to the mid-sixteenth century, but the first printed edition was in 1755.Restoration: Lise Broer

Archive – More featured pictures...

Reference to linguistic structure added[edit]

I think that this poem is an excellent example of deeply nested subordinate clauses (humorous here, but normally a writing style that one should avoid), and that a reference to its syntactic structure should be added. I have added one, but it's not directly relevant. Better would be a reference suggesting that too-deep a nesting can be very puzzling.Vjohns46 (talk) 11:06, 25 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, but for real incomprehensibility you need center-embedding, which this song does not have. That would be, f'rinstance...

This is the house.

This is the house 
  the malt 
lay in.

This is the house
  the malt 
    the rat 
  ate 
lay in.

This is the house
  the malt 
    the rat 
      the cat
    killed
  ate 
lay in.

This is the house
  the malt 
    the rat 
      the cat
        the dog
      worried
    killed
  ate 
lay in.

And so on. Now, there's glory for you! --Thnidu (talk) 06:04, 17 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The Actual Text?[edit]

I seem to distinctly recall that this article previously gave the full text of this nursery rhyme. Why has it been removed? Old as it is, it surely cannot be because it is copyrighted! The Grand Rascal (talk) 14:54, 29 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 2 May 2024[edit]

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Withdrawn. Oops. Thanks. (non-admin closure) —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 23:47, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

– per MOS:CT (or the first topic could be This is the house that Jack built per MOS:INCIPIT). Note that there are two plays with article titles that currently differ only by the capitalization of "that". NGram usage is mixed. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 22:25, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No comment on "This is the house that Jack built per MOS:INCIPIT" but oppose the others per MOS:TITLECAPS (that is a relative pronoun that should definitely be capped). It needs to be capitalized in the last item as well, with dates added to the parenthetical disambiguaters to distinguish the two play articles. Deor (talk) 23:28, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.