This Is the House That Jack Built

"This Is the House That Jack Built"
Roud #20584
Randolph Caldecott illustration from The complete collection of pictures & songs, published 1887. Digitally restored.
Song
Written	England
Published	1755
Form	Nursery rhyme
Writer(s)	Traditional
Language	English

"This Is the House That Jack Built" is a popular British nursery rhyme and cumulative tale. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20584. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2035.^[1]

Lyrics

This is perhaps the most common set of modern lyrics:

This is the house that Jack built.

This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cat that killed the rat

That ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the maiden all forlorn

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the man all tattered and torn

That kissed the maiden all forlorn

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the judge all shaven and shorn

That married the man all tattered and torn

That kissed the maiden all forlorn

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the rooster that crowed in the morn

That woke the judge all shaven and shorn

That married the man all tattered and torn

That kissed the maiden all forlorn

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the farmer sowing his corn

That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn

That woke the judge all shaven and shorn

That married the man all tattered and torn

That kissed the maiden all forlorn

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

This is the horse and the hound and the horn

That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn

That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn

That woke the judge all shaven and shorn

That married the man all tattered and torn

That kissed the maiden all forlorn

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn

That tossed the dog that worried the cat

That killed the rat that ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

Some versions use "cheese" instead of "malt", "priest" instead of "judge", "cock" instead of "rooster", the older past tense form "crew" instead of "crowed", or "chased" in place of "killed". Also in some versions the horse, the hound, and the horn are left out and the rhyme ends with the farmer.

Narrative technique

This Is the House That Jack Built illustrated by Randolph Caldecott

It is a cumulative tale that does not tell the story of Jack's house, or even of Jack who built the house, but instead shows how the house is indirectly linked to other things and people, and through this method tells the story of "The man all tattered and torn", and the "Maiden all forlorn", as well as other smaller events, showing how these are interlinked.

Origins

It has been argued that the rhyme is derived from an Aramaic hymn Chad Gadya (lit., "One Young Goat") in Sepher Haggadah, first printed in 1590; but although this is an early cumulative tale that may have inspired the form, the lyrics bear little relationship.^[2] It was suggested by James Orchard Halliwell that the reference to the "priest all shaven and shorn" indicates that the English version is probably very old, presumably as far back as the mid-sixteenth century.^[3][4] There is a possible reference to the song in The Boston New Letter of 12 April 1739 and the line: "This is the man all forlorn, &c". However, it did not appear in print until it was included in Nurse Truelove's New-Year's-Gift, or the Book of Books for Children, printed in London in 1755.^[5] It was printed in numerous collections in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.^[2] Randolph Caldecott produced an illustrated version in 1878.

Cherrington Manor, a handsome timber-framed house in North East Shropshire, England, is reputed to be the actual house that Jack built. There is a former malt house in the grounds.^[6]

Syntactic structure

Each sentence in the story is an example of an increasingly deeply nested relative clause. The last version, "This is the horse...", would be quite difficult to untangle if the previous ones were not present. See the Noun Phrase for more details about postmodification of the noun phrase in this manner.

References in popular culture

Illustration by Walter Crane

The rhyme continues to be a popular choice for illustrated children's books, with recent examples by Simms Taback^[7] and Quentin Blake^[8] showing how illustrators can introduce a fresh angle and humour into a familiar tale. The popularity of the rhyme can be seen in its use in a variety of other cultural contexts, including:

In literature and journalism

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge used it as the basis of a self-parody published in 1797 under the name Nehemiah Higginbotham. This was one of three sonnets, the other two parodying Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd. Beginning "And this reft house is that the which he built / Lamented Jack! And here his malt he piled / Cautious in vain!" it piled together phrases from Coleridge's serious work put to ludicrous use.
• An adaptation by Frederick Winsor appeared in The Space Child's Mother Goose (1958) as "This is the theory Jack built." It commented on the progress of science by describing the creation, obfuscation, and eventual destruction of a flawed theory.
• The poem "The Responsibility" by Peter Appleton parodies this rhyme to make a social comment about the manufacture of weapons.^[9]
• The twelfth Torchwood novel is titled The House that Jack Built.
• The news stories in 2006 about the shady dealings of lobbyist Jack Abramoff led to editorials about "the house that Jack built".^[10]
• There is a political version with Hillary Clinton in it.
• Laurie Faria Stolarz referenced it in her book Blue is for Nightmares. One of the main characters receives an e-mail from an ex-boyfriend with a link to an animation of the poem.
• Louisa May Alcott in her novel Little Women says the "'cow with a crumpled horn' used to invite rash youths to come and be tossed."
• In the graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore, Inspector Frederick Abberline refers to his house as "the house Jack built" noting the role of Jack the Ripper in financing his home.
• In The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, an adventure titled "The House that Jack Built" written by Edward Wellen. Holmes battles Moriarty within the mind of an "idiot savant" frequently visualizing these lyrics to navigate a mental labyrinth.
• Mystery author Ed McBain published one of his "Matthew Hope" novels with the name The House that Jack Built in 1988. Practically every character had a corresponding counterpart to one in the original poem — an unpleasant heavyset older woman with a faulty hearing aid represented "the cow with the crumpled horn," for example.
• One of the rhymes remembered by Mr Charrington in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• Mentioned in "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens ("A Hand at Cards", Book the Third, Ch. VIII)
• "The House that Jack Built" was chosen as the English title for the first book in the Lars Winkler crime series by Danish author Jakob Melander.

An unflattering 1819 caricature of the Prince Regent by George Cruikshank, illustrating "The Political House that Jack Built".

• "The Atom that Bohr built" was a poem written in the style of the original as part of the printed tribute, or 'festscrift' to Niels Bohr on his 50th birthday (1935) called "The Journal of Jocular Physics." ^[11]

In politics

• One of the "Political Miscellanies" associated with the Rolliad, an eighteenth-century British satire, was "This Is the House That George Built", referring to George Nugent Grenville, Marquess of Buckingham, who had briefly supported William Pitt the Younger into government before resigning from office. The parody is attributed to Joseph Richardson.^[12]
• Thomas Jefferson, prior to serving as President, first used it to criticize the broad construction approach of the Necessary and Proper Clause of the U.S. Constitution with respect to a bill to grant a federal charter to a mining company. The term was used to suggest that the expansion of federal powers under these arguments would give the federal government infinite powers. "Congress are authorized to defend the nation. Ships are necessary for defense; copper is necessary for ships; mines, necessary for copper; a company necessary to work the mines; and who can doubt this reasoning who has ever played at 'This is the House that Jack Built'? Under such a process of filiation of necessities the sweeping clause makes clean work."
• A British Radical satire, published in 1819 in response to public outrage over the Peterloo Massacre, was "The Political House That Jack Built," written by William Hone and illustrated by George Cruikshank.^[13]
• In 1863, David Claypoole Johnston published a cartoon "The House that Jeff Built", a satirical denunciation of Jefferson Davis, slavery, and the Confederacy.
• During The Great War, British Propaganda promoted the following version of the rhyme:

This is the house that Jack built.

This is the bomb that fell on the house that Jack built.

This is the Hun who dropped the bomb that fell on the house that Jack built.

This is the gun that killed the Hun who dropped the bomb that fell on the house that Jack built.

In television and film

• A 1959 Warner Brothers cartoon is entitled The Mouse that Jack Built. It is a parody of The Jack Benny Show, whose stars supply the voices of mouse caricatures of themselves.^[14]
• In 1966 an episode of The Avengers was titled "The House That Jack Built".^[15]
• A 1967 animated short The House That Jack Built was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.^[16]
• A 1976 Soyuzmultfilm cartoon The House That Jack Built nominated on International Short Film Festival Oberhausen at 1977
• The climax of the first adventure of the British fantasy series Sapphire & Steel hinged on the recitation of the rhyme.^[17]
• A public information film from the 1970s–1980s about fire safety was entitled The House That Jack Built, and was presented as an animated book containing the story of how a house (built by a man named Jack) burnt down in the night due to an unguarded fire and open doors, which resulted in the deaths of Jack's wife and newborn baby. The ending of the advert urges viewers to buy a smoke alarm and follow fire safety plans.
• In episode 3.05 of the TV show Frasier, actor Kelsey Grammer as the character Frasier says: "I cut myself because I was shaving without water. And why was there no water? Because I had to move your chair which gouged the floor which made me call for Joe who found bad pipes which called for Cecil who ate the cat who killed the rat that lived in the house that Frasier built!" ^[18]
• In Lars von Trier's The Element of Crime the prostitute Kim tells the poem to a child. Both are being kept in a cage at Frau Gerdas Whorehouse in Halbestadt.
• The rhyme was referenced in the classic Doctor Who episode "The Seeds of Doom" by the Fourth Doctor and companion Sarah Jane Smith to mock the villains who were trying to force information out of them.

In popular music

• In 1967 Alan Price had an international chart hit with his song "The House that Jack Built". It reached #4 in the UK, #26 in the Netherlands and #38 in Germany.
• Aretha Franklin had a number-six pop and number-two R&B hit single with "The House That Jack Built" (not a version of the rhyme) in 1968.^[19]
• English singer Tracie Young had a hit single with "The House That Jack Built" (not a version of the rhyme) in 1983.
• In 1987 the Australian band The Go-Betweens released the album Tallulah containing the song The House that Jack Kerouac built.
• In 1987 a pioneering house music act under the name 'Jack N Chill' released a single called "The Jack That House Built", which has since been sampled and re-mixed into many other songs (particularly in the house genre).^[20]
• In 1987 near the end of the track "Home" by Roger Waters on his "Radio K.A.O.S." CD, he makes a reference to it. It is done in similar fashion to the original prose - only mentioning Jack after a lengthy list of other references to the idea of Home.
• In 1995 Clutch released the song "The House that Peterbilt", a reference to the truck company.
• In 1996 Metallica released the album Load containing a song called "The House Jack Built".^[21]
• The Capitol Steps created and performed a parody called "The House That Jack Bribed", also referring to Jack Abramoff.
• The lyrics of the song 'Alla Fiera Dell'Est' ('At the Eastern Fair') by Italian songwriter Angelo Branduardi, show a marked resemblance to 'The House that Jack Built'
• In the Danish movie After the Wedding by Susanne Bier, volunteer worker Jacob teaches English to the children in an orphanage in India by using "The House that Jack Built".
• The second studio album by indie band, The Heavy is named 'The House That Dirt Built', a satirisation of the 'The House That Jack Built'.
• The fourth song by A Day to Remember on their 2010 studio album, 'What Separates Me from You', is named 'This is the House That Doubt Built'.^[22]
• The fifth song by Jesca Hoop on her 2012 album 'The House That Jack Built', is named 'The House That Jack Built'.^[23]

In sports

• The former stadium of the New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium, was nicknamed "The house that Ruth built". Babe Ruth's tremendous drawing power made the stadium possible.^[24]

See also

• Cumulative song
• Chad Gadya
• The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)
• There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

References

1. D. L. Ashliman, The House That Jack Built: an English nursery rhyme of folktale type 2035
2. I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 229-32.
3. James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales: A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England, p. 6. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
4. English Translation of Hebrew source. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
5. William S. Baring-Gould and Ceil Baring-Gould, The Annotated Mother Goose (New York, 1962), p. 25.
6. Twinkletrax Children's Songs.
7. Taback, Simms (2004). This is the house that Jack built (null ed.). New York: Puffin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-240200-9.
8. Blake, John Yeoman; illustrated by Quentin (1996). The do-it-yourself house that Jack built (null ed.). London: Puffin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-055323-9.
9. Peter Appleton, "The Responsibility," in 20th Century Poetry and War.
10. Reynolds, Paul (4 January 2006). "The hum you hear is from lobbyists". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-06-05.
11. Suspended in Language (2004) Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis. pub G.T. Labs
12. "Project Gutenberg".
13. Marcus Wood, Radical Satire and Print Culture 1790 - 1822, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-811278-5
14. "Internet Movie Database". IMDb. 4 April 1959. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
15. "Internet Movie Database". IMDb. 5 March 1966. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
16. Tunis, Ron (1967). "The House That Jack Built". National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
17. "Sapphire and Steel - The TV Series". h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
18. "Episode 3.05 - Kisses Sweeter Than Wine". Frasier Online Episode Guide. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
19. Aretha Franklin, "The House That Jack Built" Chart Positions Retrieved 20 September 2013
20. "EMP Museum - Music + Sci-fi + Pop Culture".
21. "METALLICA - Encyclopedia Metallica - Song Info - The House That Jack Built:". Encycmet.com. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
22. http://adtr.com/releases/what_separates_me_from_you
23. "BBC - Music - Review of Jesca Hoop - The House That Jack Built". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
24. "Yankee stadium history". New York Yankees. Retrieved 6 October 2014.

External links

• The House That Jack Built ~ Photographs of Advertising from 1897 for Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co
• The House That Jack Built Resources on the Web
• "Lyrics, Origins and History of 'The House That Jack Built'". Anthology of Kid's Songs, Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes. TwinkleTrax Children's Songs. 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2011.