Jack Be Nimble

= Jack Be Nimble =

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"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 other media '''A variation of this rhyme is featured in the song "American Pie", by Don McLean in 1971, with a play on the title of the Rolling Stones song, "Jumpin' Jack Flash":
 * Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
 * Jack Flash sat on a candlestick,
 * 'Cause fire's the devil's only friend.

It is also a line in Lindsey Buckingham's song "Holiday Road", featured in National Lampoon's Vacation:
 * Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
 * Take a ride on the West Coast kick.
 * Holiday road.

It is used in Welcome To The Void by the psychedelic rock band Morgenon their album Morgen in 1969:
 * Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
 * Jack jump over the candlestick,
 * Ouch, said Jack as he touched the lighted wick,
 * My God, you know that fire burns.

It is used in "My Medicine" by Snoop Doog:
 * Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
 * Jacked up the spoon on the candlestick.

It also features in the song "Limbo Rock," by Chubby Checker:
 * Jack be limbo, Jack be quick.
 * Jack go under limbo stick.

The group Set It Off also uses it in his song Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.
 * Jack, be nimble, Jack be quick
 * Jill's a little * and her alibis are dirty tricks

The video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion contains a quest called "Boots of Springheel Jak" in which the player must retrieve a pair of boots with the same name. The owner of said boots is, in keeping with the popular image, a vampire by the name of "Jakben, Earl of Imbel". The quest and boots are a reference to the mythical Spring-heeled Jack, whereas the character is a reference to both Spring-heeled Jack and "Jack Be Nimble".'''Notes '''
 * 1) I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 226–7.