Jack Sprat

"Jack Sprat"
Jack Sprat and his wife by Frederick Richardson
Nursery rhyme
Published 1639

"Jack Sprat" (or "Jack Spratt") is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19479.

Lyrics

The most common modern version of the rhyme is:[1]

Jack Sprat could eat no fat.
His wife could eat no lean.
And so between the two of them,
They licked the platter clean.

Origins

The name Jack Sprat was used of people of small stature in the sixteenth century.[1] This rhyme was an English proverb from at least the mid-seventeenth century.[1] It appeared in John Clarke's collection of sayings in 1639 in the form:[1]

Jack will eat not fat, and Jull doth love no leane.
Yet betwixt them both they lick the dishes cleane.

The saying entered the canon of English nursery rhymes when it was printed in Mother Goose's Melody around 1765, but it may have been adopted for use with children much earlier.[1]

  • The main character in Craig Hawes popular children's production "Porridge" as the narrator and detective.
  • In the popular novel It by Stephen King, it is stated that Eddie Kaspbrak is aware that his coworkers call him "Jack Sprat", in reference to his skinny physique and his obese wife.
  • Pittsburgh Steelers middle linebacker of the 1970s, Jack Lambert, had a nickname of "Jack Splat", based on his intense, fearless tackling.[2]
  • In a scene deleted from Mel Brooks's film Young Frankenstein, the Monster encounters a cowardly English highwayman somewhat inexplicably named Jack Sprat.
  • Nurse Sprat is an obese character in The Sisters Grimm series.
  • Mrs. Sprat is a morbidly obese nurse in the comic book series Fables. During Mr. Dark's invasion she defects to his side in exchange for being remade a lithe, beautiful woman, renaming herself Leigh Douglas.
  • In Jasper Fforde's novels The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, Jack Spratt is the protagonist. Spratt is a Detective Inspector investigating crimes committed by nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters. True to the rhyme, he hates fat, often going to great lengths to trim it from his food. Spratt has remarried, following the death of the wife mentioned in the rhyme; Jack cites it as a result of eating too much fat.
  • In G. Paul Lucas's artworks, mixed-media photomontage is used to offer a contemporary interpretation of Jack Sprat and his rotund wife. Inspired from early childhood by this Mother Goose rhyme, Lucas creates a world in which the slovenly, beer-drinking Jack is "taken care of" in more ways than one by his dissatisfied, hot-tempered wife.[3]
  • Episodes of both television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide use the name Jack Sprat. Sabrina uses it as a fake name when she drinks "Boy Brew" to become a guy to listen in on conversations Harvey has with his friends. The new kid janitor who tries to take over Gordy's job is named Jack Sprat in the episode "New Kid".
  • In a segment of "Vital Information" on an episode of All That, one of the bits of information was, "Contrary to popular belief, Jack Sprat can eat fat. You just gotta hold Jack down and shove that fat down his throat!".
  • In the ABC series Once Upon a Time episode "Dreamy," there is a cameo of a man eating a carrot and his slightly chubby wife.
  • In the January 17, 2015 comic strip "Pearls Before Swine," the character "Rat" adds his twist on the nursery rhyme.[4]
  • He makes an appearance in the Dreamworks animated television series The Adventures of Puss in Boots.
  • A possible reference appears in the Issue #1 of Daimon Hellstrom MAX comics.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Opie, I.; Opie, P. (1997) [1951]. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 238.
  2. ↑ Jim Litke (Aug 3, 1990). "Jack Splat". The Gettysburg Times. p. 1B.
  3. ↑ http://lucaslimited.com/Home_Page.php
  4. ↑ http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2015/01/17
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