Tweedledum and Tweedledee
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| "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" Roud #19800 |
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 John Tenniel's illustration, from Through the Looking-Glass (1871), chapter 4 |
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| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | 1805 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery Rhyme |
Tweedledum and Tweedledee are fictional characters in an English language nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and Alice in Wonderland. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The nursery rhyme has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19800.
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[edit] Lyrics
Common versions of the nursery rhyme include:
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee
- Agreed to have a battle;
- For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
- Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
- Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
- As black as a tar-barrel;
- Which frightened both the heroes so,
- They quite forgot their quarrel.[1]
[edit] Origins
The words "Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee" make their first appearance in print in "one of the most celebrated and most frequently quoted (and sometimes misquoted) epigrams", satirising the disagreements between George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Battista Bononcini, written by John Byrom (1692–1763):[2]
- Some say, compar'd to Bononcini
- That Mynheer Handel's but a Ninny
- Others aver, that he to Handel
- Is scarcely fit to hold a Candle
- Strange all this Difference should be
- 'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee![3]
Although Byrom is clearly the author of the epigram, the last two lines have also been attributed to Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope.[1] Although the rhyme in its familiar form was not printed until around 1805, when it appeared in Original Ditties for the Nursery, it is possible that Byrom was drawing on an existing rhyme.[4]
[edit] Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel
The characters are perhaps best known from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There. Carroll, having introduced two fat little men named Tweedledum and Tweedledee, quotes the nursery rhyme, which the two brothers then go on to enact. They agree to have a battle, but never have one. When they see a monstrous black crow swooping down, they take to their heels. The Tweedle brothers never contradict each other, even when one of them, according to the rhyme, "agrees to have a battle". Rather, they complement each other's words. This fact has led Tenniel to assume that they are twins also physically, and Gardner goes so far as to claim that Carroll intended them to be enantiomorphs, i.e., three-dimensional mirror images. Evidence for these assumptions cannot be found in any of Lewis Carroll's writings.[4]
The two characters appeared in Disney's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland despite the fact that the movie was mostly based on the first book.[5] They are often represented by actors in Disney theme Parks. The Disney versions of the characters later made frequent appearances in the Disney television series House of Mouse and can also be spotted during the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[6]
[edit] Other references in popular culture
In literature and letters
- In a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver the writer James Joyce uses the twins "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" to characterize Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung and their conflict: "... a certain Doctor Jung (the Swiss Tweedledum who is not to be confused with the Viennese Tweedledee, Dr. Freud) ..." (James Joyce: Letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver. 24 June 1921).
- They appear as the character 'General Doppelganger' in Frank Beddor's 2007 novel The Looking Glass Wars.
On television
- In the show Arrested Development (2003-6), Michael Bluth makes reference to Tweedledee and Tweedledum, after which the narrator explains that Michael did not "mean it in that way...how could he? He didn't even know."[7]
- In the anime Kiddy Grade two fraternal twins called Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear. The twins also have a guard robot called "Dodo" as well as a spaceship named "C-Square", which stands for Cheshire Cat, both taken from Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.
- In the Care Bears movie The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland, the main antagonist has two bumbling cronies named "Dim and Dumb" who are based on the twins, and bear a strong resemblance to Beastly, No Heart's assistant.
- In the interactive movie Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, Dirk goes through the looking glass into a Wonderland-themed world, where many characters(Jabberwocky, The Queen of Hearts, for example) make an appearance. In the beginning, Tweedledum and Tweedledee say a poem while trying to hit Dirk with spade-shaped clubs:
- How do you do, good sir knight?
- Care to join us in a fight?
- Make way for the queen!
- you see what i mean?
In comics and manga
- In DC Comics, two long-time Batman villains call themselves Tweedledum and Tweedledee , because they are cousins that happen to be identical and very similar to the original versions. Their true names, appropriately, are Deever and Dumfree Tweed. They occasionally appear as henchmen of the Joker, but just as often operate solo. They first appeared in Detective Comics #74.
- In Pearls Before Swine (comic strip), the character Pig was portrayed as them both, called TweedledumbPig and TweedledumberPig
- They also appear as bosses in American McGee's Alice working for the Mad Hatter.
In politics
- During the 2000 United States presidential election, candidate Ralph Nader pointed out that George W. Bush and Al Gore were not very different in their corporate policies,[8] and called them Tweedledum and Tweedledee.[9]
In popular music
- The video of Nik Kershaw's "The Riddle" (1984) features characters who resemble Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
- "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum" features as the opening song on Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft.[10]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 418.
- ^ C.Edgar Thomas: Some Musical Epigrams and Poems, The Musical Times, November 1, (1915), p. 661.
- ^ John Byrom: Epigram on the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini, The Poems, The Chetham Society 1894–1895. Source: Literature Online.
- ^ a b M. Gardner, ed., The Annotated Alice (New York: Meridian, 1963).
- ^ J. Beck, The Animated Movie Guide (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2005), p. 11.
- ^ S. Griffin, Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: the Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out (New York: New York University Press, 2000), p. 228.
- ^ Arrested Development" Season 3; Episode 6; "The Ocean Walker" (2005) 5:20.
- ^ "Political compass". Pace News. http://politicalcompass.org/uselection. Retrieved 2008-09-14. "compared to other western democracies, especially those with a finely-tuned system of proportional representation, most mainstream political activity in the US is concentrated over a more narrow ideological range"
- ^ "Nader assails major parties: scoffs at charge he drains liberal vote". CBS (Associated Press). 2000-04-06. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/04/06/politics/main180811.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-14. "There is a difference between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, but not that much."
- ^ http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/tweedle-dee-tweedle-dum, retrieved 18/04/09.
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