Name: all the king's men
Other Names: Four-score Men and Four-score more; Threescore men and threescore more; Forty Doctors and forty wrights
Classification:
supporting characters
group
Publisher(s): Bygone Productions
First Appearance: Juvenile Amusements (1797): "Humpty Dumpty"
Creators: Samuel Arnold
Number of Appearances: 2
TV, Film Appearances: 1
Prose/Text Book/Story Appearances: 1
Ally: all the king's horses
Note: couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again
The nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" is well known in the following form:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
But the earliest known printed version of the nursery rhyme differs from this and does not mention the king's horses. It reads as follows:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Four-score Men and Four-score more,
Could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before.
Other versions of the nursery rhyme include other variations on the identification of the men who try to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
All the King's Horses (2011)Babes in Toyland (1934)Foodledoo and Peekaboo in Humpty Dumpty's Big Surprise (2008)Four Color #41 (Apr. 1944): "Mother Goose and Nursery Rhyme Comics"Greedy Humpty Dumpty (1936)Humpty (2011)Humpty Dumpty (1935) (mentioned)Juvenile Amusements (1797): "Humpty Dumpty"Max Hamm: Fairy Tale Detective (vol. 1) #1 (Nov. 2002): "The Big Sheep"Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme (1990)NCIS - Season 1, Episode 21 (11 May 2004): "Split Decision" (mentioned)Super Why! - Season 1, Episode 3 (5 Sep. 2007): "Humpty Dumpty"
Suggested links for further research about this character:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1395731/