Mother Goose’s Melody (1760):
“Hey Diddle Diddle”

6 characters in this story:

Character (Click links for info about character and his/her religious practice, affiliation, etc.)	Religious Affiliation	Team(s) [Notes]	Pub.	# app.
The Cat and the Fiddle	N.A.	cat	John Newbery	2
The Cow	N.A.	cattle [jumped over the moon]	John Newbery	1
The Little Dog	anthropomorphic animal	dog [laughed to see such a sight]	John Newbery	1
The Dish	sentient inanimate	[ran away with the Spoon]	John Newbery	1
The Spoon	sentient inanimate	[ran away with the Dish]	John Newbery	1
The Moon	sentient inanimate	[the moon, anthropomorphized]	John Newbery	1

The earliest known printed version of the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" was published in John Newbery's compilation Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1760). But the nursery rhyme was certainly in circulation long before then. A reference in Thomas Preston's "A lamentable tragedy mixed ful of pleasant mirth, conteyning the life of Cambises King of Percia" may refer to this nursery rhyme.

This story was indexed from secondary sources only. The character list above is not necessarily comprehensive. An alternative form of this story's title is: “The Cat and the Fiddle”. Webpage for Mother Goose's Melody (1760) created 8 May 2013. Last modified 5 June 2014.

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