Tweedledum and Tweedledee
| "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" | |
|---|---|
 John Tenniel's illustration, from Through the Looking-Glass (1871), chapter 4 | |
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1805 |
Tweedledee and Tweedledum are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. 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. The names have since become synonymous in western popular culture slang for any two people who look and act in identical ways.
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]
Origins
The words "Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum" make their first appearance in print as names applied to the composers George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Bononcini in "one of the most celebrated and most frequently quoted (and sometimes misquoted) epigrams", satirising disagreements between Handel and Bononcini,[2] written by John Byrom (1692–1763):[3] in his satire, from 1725.
- 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![4]
Although Byrom is clearly the author of the epigram, the last two lines have also been attributed to Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope.[1] While the familiar form of the rhyme 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.[5]
Through The Looking-Glass
The characters are perhaps best known from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There (1871). Carroll, having introduced two fat little men named Tweedledee and Tweedledum, 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, which led John Tenniel to portray them as twins in his illustrations for the book.
Other depictions
- In a 1921 letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver, the writer James Joyce uses the twins "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" to characterize Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung and their conflict.[6]
- Helen Keller said of democracy in the US: "Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee."[7]
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear in the 1934 Betty Boop short film Betty in Blunderland using their clubs to battle only for them to duck their heads into their shirts and surrender.
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear Disney's 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland,[8] both voiced by J. Pat O'Malley, and representing the sun and moon as they tell Alice the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter, and the first stanza of the poem called, You Are Old, Father William before Alice quietly leave to find the White Rabbit. The Disney versions of the characters later appeared in the Disney television series House of Mouse and one of them in the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[9]
- The pair are depicted by Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence in the 1985 live-action television movie Alice in Wonderland.
- "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum" is the opening song on Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft.[10]
- Leading up to the 2010 United Kingdom general election, Tory leader David Cameron compared coalition-building British party leaders to "Tweedledum talking to Tweedledee, who is talking to Tweedledem."[11]
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, portrayed by Ben Cotton and Matty Finochio. They appear as the Red Queen's servants where they started out working for the Red King. While Tweedledum is shown to be loyal to the Red Queen, Tweedledee is shown to be loyal to Jafar.[12]
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear as minor antagonists in a few chapters of the game, The Wolf Among Us by Telltale Games.
- "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" is a song released in 1971 by British pop music band Middle of the Road who reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
- Tweedledee and Tweedledum is also the name of the double star system Φ 332 (Finsen 332) in the tail section of the constellation Serpens (Serpens Cauda). It was thus named by the South African astronomer William Stephen Finsen.[13][14][15]
- Marcel Perez made silent comedy shorts as Tweedledum.[16]
- Tweedle Do and Tweedle Don't are the great grand brother of Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear Disney's Alice's Wonderland Bakery voice by Vanessa Bayer and Bobby Moynihan in Episode 16 Meet the Tweedles.
- In the DC Comics, Dumfree and Deever Tweed are twin cousins who commit crimes together and often work with the Mad Hatter, they will use there overweight body mass as combat maneuvers such as rolling like boulders or bounce like balls.
- In American McGee's Alice and Alice Madness Returns games, the Tweedles represent the orderlies who assisted Nurse Cratchet in tormenting Alice when she was in Rutledge Asylum, Tweedledee appears to be bigger while Tweedledum is shorter. When Alice fights them, they arm themselves with wooden swords and use their propeller hats to fly and split apart to summon smaller Tweedles.
- In the Fables comics, the Tweedles became thugs for hire and worked for The Crooked Man.
Notes
- ^ a b I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 418.
- ^ Knowles, Elizabeth KnowlesElizabeth (2006-01-01), "Tweedledum and Tweedledee", The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780198609810.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-860981-0, retrieved 2020-08-17
- ^ 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.
- ^ M. Gardner, ed., The Annotated Alice (New York: Meridian, 1963).
- ^ James Joyce: Letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver. 24 June 1921
- ^ Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States Harper Perennial Classics, 2005. p.345 ISBN 0-06-083865-5.
- ^ J. Beck, The Animated Movie Guide (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2005), p. 11.
- ^ Griffin, S. (2000). Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: the Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out. New York: New York University Press. p. 228. ISBN 0-8147-3122-8.
- ^ "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum". Bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2009-04-18.
- ^ "All Bets Are Off in British Campaign". New York Times. 2010-04-26. Retrieved 2010-04-26. “Tweedledum talking to Tweedledee, who is talking to Tweedledem”
- ^ "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland". TVGuide.com.
- ^ Sky Catalogue 2000.0, Volume 2: Double Stars, Variable Stars, and Nonstellar Objects (edited by Alan Hirshfeld and Roger W. Sinnott, 1985), Chapter 3: Glossary of Selected Astronomical Names.
- ^ Sky and Telescope, November 1961, page 263.
- ^ Deep-Sky Name Index 2000.0 - Hugh C. Maddocks (Foxon-Maddocks Associates, 1991).
- ^ Marcel Perez at Internet Archive
