Humpty Dumpty was a giant English Civil War cannon, claims book

London, Sept 29 : If you believe that Humpty Dumpty in the popular nursery rhyme was an egg, then better think again, for a new book has revealed that the character was apparently a giant cannon used during the English Civil War of 1642-1651.

Sam Foster's book 'Hey Diddle Diddle' claims that Humpty Dumpty was a large Royalist gun on the wall of a church in Colchester in the English Civil War, which fell off and broke during a siege.

The author says that the soldiers could not repair the gun, reports British tabloid The Sun.

Foster also writes that the popular Georgie Porgie poem originally talks about George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham and a pal of England's King James I.

His conquests were said to have included the French Queen, Anne of Austria.

Even the Baa! Baa! Black sheep rhyme is a satire on King Edward I, according to the book.

The author says that the poem originally talks about the King's wool tax.

The rhyme says one third went to the King (my master), another to the Church (my dame) and just one third to the people (the little boy).

The book further says that the classic Hey diddle diddle ode pokes fun of life at the court of Elizabeth I.

According to it, the Queen was the cat in the rhyme, who fiddled with the powers of her chief advisers.

The little dog was the Earl of Leicester, and the dish a serving lady who ran off with a royal food taster.

No one is sure who the cow and moon were, writes the author.

ANI