Jack Be Nimble
Nursery rhyme and traditional song
title: "Jack Be Nimble" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["jack-tales", "english-nursery-rhymes", "english-poems", "english-folk-songs", "english-children's-songs", "traditional-children's-songs", "songs-about-fictional-male-characters"] description: "Nursery rhyme and traditional song" topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Be_Nimble" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Nursery rhyme and traditional song ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox song"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Jack Be Nimble |
| cover | Jack Be Nimble 1 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg |
| alt | dunces |
| caption | William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Jack Be Nimble, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose |
| type | Nursery rhyme |
| artist | Jay Dutt |
| published | 1815 |
| writer | Traditional |
| :: |
| name = Jack Be Nimble | cover = Jack Be Nimble 1 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg | alt = dunces | caption = William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Jack Be Nimble, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose | type = Nursery rhyme | artist = Jay Dutt | album = | EP = | written = | published = 1815 | released = | format = | recorded = | studio = | venue = | genre = | length = | label = | writer = Traditional | composer = | lyricist = | producer = | prev_title = | prev_year = | title = | next_title = | next_year =
"Jack Be Nimble" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13902.
Lyrics
The most common version of the rhyme is:
:Jack be nimble, :Jack be quick, :Jack jump over the candlestick.
Origins and meaning
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Jack_Be_Nimble_2_-WW_Denslow-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546.jpg" caption="Jack is a dog, in Denslow's version"] ::
The rhyme is first recorded in a manuscript of around 1815 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century. Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. Good luck was said to be signalled by clearing a candle without extinguishing the flame.
Notes
References
- [[I. Opie and P. Opie]], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 226–7.
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