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"Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English-language
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The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in ''
nursery rhyme
A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From t ...
. It has a Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
number of 6489.
Lyrics and music
The most common modern version is:Other variants include "down the mouse ran" or "down the mouse run" or "and down he ran" or "and down he run" in place of "the mouse ran down".Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck one, The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock. Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck two, The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock. Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck three, The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock. Hickory dickory dock. The mouse ran up the clock. The clock struck four, The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock.
Score
Origins and meaning
The earliest recorded version of the rhyme is in ''Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book
''Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book'' is the first extant anthology of English nursery rhymes, published in London in 1744. It contains the oldest printed texts of many well-known and popular rhymes, as well as several that eventually dropped out of ...
'', published in London in about 1744, which uses the opening line: 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'. The next recorded version in ''Mother Goose's Melody'' (c. 1765), uses 'Dickery, Dickery Dock'.
The rhyme is thought by some commentators to have originated as a counting-out rhyme. Westmorland shepherds in the nineteenth century used the numbers ''Hevera'' (8), ''Devera'' (9) and ''Dick'' (10) which are from the language Cumbric
Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
.
The rhyme is thought to have been based on the astronomical clock at Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 140 ...
. The clock has a small hole in the door below the face for the resident cat to hunt mice.Cathedral Cats. Richard Surman. HarperCollins. 2004
See also
* Yan Tan Tethera * Chiastic structure * List of nursery rhymes *Hickory, Dickory, and Doc
In the 1959 Universal Pictures theatrical short " ''Space Mouse''", producer Walter Lantz introduced three new cartoon animal characters: a cat named Doc and two mice named Hickory and Dickory. Hickory, Dickory, and Doc appeared together in two ...
References
External links
* * {{authority control 1744 songs English children's songs English folk songs Songs about mice and rats Fictional mice and rats English nursery rhymes Songwriter unknown Traditional children's songs