Jack Sprat
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Jack Sprat is an English nursery rhyme with lyrics as follows:
- Jack Sprat could eat no fat
- His wife could eat no lean.
- And so between the two of them,
- They licked the platter clean!
The word between in the third line is alternatively seen as the word betwixt; other variations include "And so betwixt them both between" and "And so between them both, you see".
It has been suggested that the rhyme pokes fun at Charles I of England and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, who required common people to house troops during his war with Spain;<ref>http://www.rooneydesign.com/JackSprat.html</ref> other possible explanations include the suggestion that "Jack Sprat" was a nickname for people of short stature in the 16th and 17th century.<ref>http://nurseryrhymes.allinfoabout.com/jack_sprat.html</ref>
[edit] Cultural references
In the comic book series Fables, Mrs. Sprat is briefly seen. She is, as the rhyme tells, very fat indeed.
In Jasper Fforde's novels The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, Jack Spratt is a Detective Inspector in Reading, investigating crimes committed by nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters. He also possesses traits of Jack the Giant Killer and Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk". Spratt has remarried, following the death of the wife mentioned in the rhyme (presumably due to high cholesterol).
[edit] Notes
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