70 free Nursery Rhyme trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
68 free nursery rhyme trivia questions with answers. Everyone knows nursery rhymes, and almost nobody knows anything about them. This quiz covers both halves: the words themselves (what did Jack and Jill fetch, how many bags of wool, who put pussy in the well) and the surprisingly murky history behind them, from the woman who wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb to the pub in Pop Goes the Weasel and the plague theory that folklorists have quietly thrown out. The easy questions work for a family quiz or a baby-shower game; the harder ones will catch out anyone who thinks Humpty Dumpty was a cannon. It also makes a good round for a pub quiz, since everyone in the room will be sure they know the answers. Every question was checked against the standard references (chiefly the Opies' Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes as summarised on Wikipedia), so the 'hidden meaning' questions distinguish between what is documented and what is just a good story.
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Q 01In 'Humpty Dumpty', who could not put Humpty together again?
All the king's horses and all the king's men
The rhyme never actually says he is an egg; it was probably a riddle to which 'an egg' was the answer.
Q 02Which author turned Humpty Dumpty into a talking egg in an 1871 book?
Lewis Carroll
He appears in Through the Looking-Glass and lectures Alice on what words mean.
Q 03According to the Oxford English Dictionary, what did 'humpty dumpty' mean in the 17th century?
A drink of brandy boiled with ale
In the 18th century it was also slang for a short, clumsy person, which helped the riddle misdirect.
Q 04Which English town's tourist board claimed Humpty Dumpty was a cannon used in a 1648 siege?
Colchester
The cannon supposedly sat on the wall of St Mary-at-the-Walls church during the English Civil War; there is no evidence for the story.
Q 05What did Jack and Jill go up the hill to fetch?
A pail of water
Jack falls and breaks his crown, and later verses were added in the 19th century to carry the story on.
Q 06How was Jill's name spelled in the earliest printed version of 'Jack and Jill'?
Gill
The accompanying woodcut showed two boys at the foot of the hill, not a boy and a girl.
Q 07In a later verse, what does Jack use to mend his broken head?
Vinegar and brown paper
That compress was a real household cure for bruises at the time.
Q 08Who wrote 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', first published in 1830?
Sarah Josepha Hale
She was a Boston-based editor who later campaigned successfully to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.
Q 09'Mary Had a Little Lamb' was the first thing recorded on which invention?
Thomas Edison's phonograph
Edison recited it in 1877, then re-enacted the recording in 1927; the later version still survives.
Q 10Which industrialist bought the 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' schoolhouse and moved it to Sudbury, Massachusetts?
Henry Ford
The Redstone School now sits in a churchyard on the grounds of Longfellow's Wayside Inn.
Q 11The words of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' come from an 1806 poem by which writer?
Jane Taylor
The poem was called 'The Star' and appeared in Rhymes for the Nursery, written with her sister Ann.
Q 12Which composer wrote variations on the French melody used for 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'?
Mozart
The same tune is used for the alphabet song and 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep'.
Q 13Which Alice in Wonderland character recites the parody 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat'?
The Mad Hatter
He says he was singing it at a concert when the Queen accused him of murdering the time.
Q 21What do folklore scholars think of the idea that 'Ring a Ring o' Roses' is about the plague?
It is unfounded
The explanation only appeared in the mid-20th century, centuries after the plague, and older versions of the song do not match it.
Q 22Which Norse king is sometimes credited with pulling down London Bridge in about 1014?
Olaf II
Another theory holds that the 'fair lady' refers to a child buried in the bridge's foundations; neither is proven.
Q 23In 'Hickory Dickory Dock', what does the clock strike before the mouse runs down?
One
The earliest version, in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, opened 'Hickere, Dickere Dock'.
Q 14How many bags of wool does the black sheep have?
Three
One for the master, one for the dame, and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
Q 15One theory says 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep' is a complaint about a medieval tax on what?
Wool
The 'Great Custom' of 1275 lasted into the 15th century; the theory was floated in a 1930 book about the 'real personages' of Mother Goose.
Q 16In 'Hey Diddle Diddle', which animal jumped over the moon?
The cow
The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon.
Q 17What was Little Miss Muffet eating when the spider arrived?
Curds and whey
The rhyme was first printed in 1805; nobody agrees what a tuffet is, though it probably meant a grassy mound.
Q 18What was the field of Dr Thomas Muffet, sometimes said to be Little Miss Muffet's father?
Entomology
He died in 1604, two centuries before the rhyme appeared, which is why the Opies were sceptical.
Q 19How many fiddlers did Old King Cole call for?
Three
He also called for his pipe and his bowl; the earliest printed version dates from 1709.
Q 20The legendary Welsh king sometimes claimed as the original Old King Cole was named ...
Coel Hen
His name translates roughly as 'Old Cole'; a 12th-century Reading cloth merchant called Cole-brook is another candidate.
Q 24In 'Three Blind Mice', what does the farmer's wife use to cut off their tails?
A carving knife
The round was printed as early as 1609, in a collection edited by Thomas Ravenscroft, with very different words.
Q 25'Three Blind Mice' has been read as a reference to which monarch executing three bishops?
Mary I
The Oxford Martyrs, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer, were burned at the stake, not blinded.
Q 26According to the rhyme, what should Little Bo-Peep do about her lost sheep?
Leave them alone and they'll come home
In a later verse she finds them, but they have left their tails behind them, a nod to the docking of lambs' tails.
Q 27Jack Sprat could eat no fat, and his wife could eat no ...
lean
Between them they licked the platter clean; the saying was already an English proverb by 1639.
Q 28Where did Old Mother Hubbard go to fetch her poor dog a bone?
The cupboard
The 1805 book is attributed to Sarah Catherine Martin, who wrote it while staying at Kitley House in Devon.
Q 29What did Little Jack Horner pull out of his Christmas pie?
A plum
Nineteenth-century writers claimed the real Jack Horner was a Tudor steward who pocketed the deeds to a manor hidden in a pie sent to Henry VIII.
Q 30The 'real' Jack Horner was said to be steward to the last abbot of which abbey?
Glastonbury
The story goes that he lifted the deeds to the manor of Mells from a pie meant as a bribe for Henry VIII.