The House That Jack Built

an English nursery rhyme of folktale type 2035
edited by

D. L. Ashliman
© 2009

1. This is the house that Jack built.

2. This is the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

3. This is the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

4. This is the cat,
   That kill'd the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

5. This is the dog,
   That worried the cat,
   That kill'd the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

6. This is the cow with the crumpled horn,
   That toss'd the dog,
   That worried the cat,
   That kill'd the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

7. This is the maiden all forlorn,
   That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
   That tossed the dog,
   That worried the cat,
   That kill'd the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

8. This is the man all tatter'd and torn,
   That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
   That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
   That tossed the dog,
   That worried the cat,
   That kill'd the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

9. This is the priest all shaven and shorn,
   That married the man all tatter'd and torn,
   That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
   That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
   That tossed the dog,
   That worried the cat,
   That kill'd the rat,
   That ate the malt
   That lay in the house that Jack built.

10. This is the cock that crow'd in the morn,
    That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
    That married the man all tatter'd and torn,
    That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
    That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
    That tossed the dog,
    That worried the cat,
    That kill'd the rat,
    That ate the malt
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

11. This is the farmer sowing his corn,
    That kept the cock that crow'd in the morn,
    That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
    That married the man all tatter'd and torn,
    That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
    That milk'd the cow with the crumpled horn,
    That tossed the dog,
    That worried the cat,
    That killed the rat,
    That ate the malt
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

• Source: James Orchard Halliwell [Halliwell-Phillipps], The Nursery Rhymes of England: Collected Chiefly from Oral Tradition, 4th edition (London: John Russell Smith, 1846), no. 398, pp. 175-78.

• Links to additional nineteenth-century versions:
  1. Bentley's Miscellany, vol. 13 (London: Richard Bentley, 1843), p. 481. This is a parody of the traditional rhyme. It was first published in the Morning Chronicle, September 22, 1809.

  2. [William Hone], The Political House That Jack Built, illustrated by George Cruikshank (1819). This is a parody of the traditional rhyme.

  3. "A New House That Jack Built," The Examiner: A Sunday Paper on Politics, Domestic Economy and Theatricals, for the year 1819 (London: John Hunt, 1819), p. 652. This is a parody of the traditional rhyme.

  4. A Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young People (London: Sampson Low and Son, 1856), no. 5, pp. 1-16. Each story in this volume is numbered separately.

  5. Laura Valentine, Games for Family Parties and Children (London: Frederick Warne and Company, 1869), p. 66.

  6. William Alexander Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions: Their Migrations and Transformations, vol. 1 (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1887), pp. 289-91.

Return to D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.

Revised May 1, 2009.