The Truth Behind Jack & Jill. Does anyone know if this is true.?
I was told by a friend today that the childrens story Jack and Jill is actually about a merchant and a queen who had an affair. The would run off into the woods and have their rendevous every chance they got and then one day the queen got pregnant and when the king found out it wasn't his child he had the merchant beheaded (thats how the merchant lost his crown). The queen was found guilty of treason and hung (Jill came tumbling after).
Anyone know if this is true.
I dont know more than likely the names were changed to protect the innocent.
Marking the event in English history, when, in the 17th century, King Charles I tried to reform the taxes on liquid measures. He was blocked by Parliament, so subsequently ordered that the volume of a Jack (1/2 pint) be reduced, but the tax remained the same. This meant that he still received more tax, despite Parliament's veto. Hence "Jack fell down and broke his crown" (many pint glasses in the UK still have a line marking the 1/2 pint level with a crown above it) "and Jill came tumbling after". The reference to "Jill", (actually a "gill", or 1/4 pint) is an indication that the gill dropped in volume as a consequence.
Jack and Jill are Louis XVI of France, who was deposed and beheaded (lost his crown), and his Queen, Marie Antoinette (who came tumbling after). The words and lyrics were made more palatable for the nursery by giving it a happy ending. However, the first publication date for the lyrics of this nursery rhyme is in the 1760s in John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody, which predates this event by a number of years.
In Norse mythology, Hjúki and Bil, a brother and sister (respectively) who, according to Gylfaginning manuscript, were taken up from the earth by the moon as they were fetching water from the well called Byrgir, bearing on their shoulders the cask called Saegr and the pole called Simul.
In Shakespeare's "Mid Summer Night's Dream" at the end of act three, it is said:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
Also referenced in the GrooveLily song "All Shall Be Well" - music from A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which most lyrics are written by Shakespeare.
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Book Review of the Shining by Stephen King
While many are more familiar with the Stanley Kubrick film of 1980, it is really the King novel that should be placed first in the minds of the literary and film-going public.
While there is little debate that Kubrick's adaptation starring Jack Nicholson is a marvelous example of horror filmmaking, it has much to thank Stephen King for the original themes of isolation, alcoholism, and mental illness.
Written only three years prior to the films release, King tells the story of Jack Torrance, a temperamental and sometime alcoholic writer who is attempting to rebuild his family after being expelled from the prestigious New England prep school. He decides to take a job as the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel in an isolated area of Colorado.
There, he and his wife Wendy and small son, Danny will spend 5 months alone in the sprawling hotel. His son's telepathy and visions spell trouble for the family, as he is bombarded with negative and disturbing imagery of the hotel and its grounds. Said to be built on an Indian burial ground and possessing strange powers, the Overlook took the lives of the last caretaker that worked the winter, a Delbert Grady.
The man, filled with rage and slowly going insane, kills his wife and children with an axe, and then proceeds to shoot himself.
Jack dismisses this as an isolated incident, and knows that the secluded winter at the Overlook with be the perfect time to get his writing career back on track.
Before they leave, Danny is introduced to the hotel's cook, Dick Halloran, who tells him that others (including himself) have the ability to see things before they happen. He calls this "shining". Before he leaves the family, he tells Danny to shine to him if anything goes wrong (which Dick knew would inevitably happen).
With lack of alcohol and the crushing sense of isolation, paired with the monotony of his writing, Jack begins getting wrapped up in the ghost world of the hotel. He makes friends with the Overlook's bartender (who is long dead) and Delbert Grady (who does not remember killing his family).
Wendy and Danny notice his decline, and after one particularly violent episode, they lock him in the walk-in pantry. Unbeknownst to them, he is let out by the ghost of Delbert Grady, but on the condition that he will kill Wendy and Danny. He complies, and goes on a mission to hunt them down in the hotel.
Danny shines to Dick Halloran, who races up from Florida (where he is staying for the winter). Jack ends up in the boiler room of the hotel and the Overlook explodes, burning everything inside. Luckily, Danny and Wendy are rescued by a fast-thinking Halloran who drives them away from the burning wreckage.
Many believe that King has failed in later years, but as his third novel (after Carrie and Salem's Lot) The Shining remains a mainstay of horror fiction.
About the Author
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