Tweedledum and Tweedledee: Difference between revisions
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imported>Ro Thorpe (made ref a <ref>) |
imported>Peter Schmitt (If you want a reference you have to add it :-) However, I think it is more convenient for the reader to have it in the sentence ...) |
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== Reference == | |||
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Revision as of 19:05, 16 March 2010
The first known mention of Tweedledum and Tweedledee is found in an epigram (1727) by John Byrom. It targets the rivalry of two composers — Georg Friedrich Händel and Giovanni Battista Bononcini — in the London of the 1720s.
The pair appears again in a nursery rhyme (printed around 1805) which may (or may not) have been old enough to be known to Byrom.
This rhyme is now known worldwide as a result of Lewis Carroll's inclusion of it in his second Alice book Through the Looking-Glass (1871).[1]
The epigram (1927)
An Epigram on the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini
Some say, compared to Bononcini That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny; Others aver that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle; Strange all this difference should be 'Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.
The nursery rhyme
Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel; Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrel.
Reference
- ↑ Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter Four, Tweedledum and Tweedledee