Jack Be Nimble

This article is about the nursery rhyme. For other uses, see Jack Be Nimble (disambiguation).

"Jack Be Nimble"
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Jack Be Nimble, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Nursery rhyme by Jay Dutt
Published	c. 1815
Songwriter(s)	Traditional

"Jack Be Nimble" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13902.

Lyrics

The most common version of the rhyme is:

Jack be nimble,

Jack be quick,

Jack jump over the candlestick. ^[1]

Origins and meaning

Jack is a dog, in Denslow's version

The rhyme is first recorded in a manuscript of around 1815 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century. ^[1] Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. Good luck was said to be signalled by clearing a candle without extinguishing the flame. ^[1]

In popular culture

The rhyme was referenced in the lyrics of Lindsey Buckingham's 1983 single, "Holiday Road".

Notes

1. I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 226–7.