Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book '' Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There''. Their names may have originally come from an

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

written by poet John Byrom. The nursery rhyme has a

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

number of 19800. The names have since become synonymous in western popular culture slang for any two people whose appearances and actions are identical.

Lyrics

Common versions of the nursery rhyme include: :Tweedledum and Tweedledee : Agreed to have a battle; :For Tweedledum said Tweedledee : Had spoiled his nice new rattle. :Just then flew down a monstrous crow, : As black as a tar-barrel; :Which frightened both the heroes so, : They quite forgot their quarrel.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 418.

Origins

The words "Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum" make their first appearance in print as names applied to the composers

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

and Giovanni Bononcini in "one of the most celebrated and most frequently quoted (and sometimes misquoted)

s", satirising disagreements between Handel and Bononcini, written by John Byrom (1692–1763): in his satire, from 1725. :Some say, compar'd to Bononcini :That Mynheer Handel's but a Ninny :Others aver, that he to Handel :Is scarcely fit to hold a Candle :Strange all this Difference should be :'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee! Although Byrom is clearly the author of the epigram, the last two lines have also been attributed to Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. While the familiar form of the rhyme was first printed in ''Original Ditties for the Nursery'' (c. 1805), Byrom may have drawn on an existing rhyme.M. Gardner, ed., '' The Annotated Alice'' (New York: Meridian, 1963).

''Through The Looking-Glass''

The characters are perhaps best known from Lewis Carroll's ''

Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

'' (1871). Carroll, having introduced two fat little men named Tweedledee and Tweedledum, quotes the nursery rhyme, which the two brothers then go on to enact. They agree to have a battle, but never have one. When they see a monstrous black crow swooping down, they take to their heels. The Tweedle brothers never contradict each other, even when one of them, according to the rhyme, "agrees to have a battle". Rather, they complement each other's words, which led John Tenniel to portray them as twins in his illustrations for the book.

Other depictions

* Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear in Disney's 1951 version of ''Alice in Wonderland'', both voiced by

J. Pat O'Malley James Rudolph O'Malley (15 March 1904 – 27 February 1985) was an English character actor and singer who appeared in many American films and television programmes from the 1940s to 1982, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley. He also appeared on ...

, and representing the sun and moon as they tell

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter, and the first stanza of the poem called,

You Are Old, Father William "You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. It is recited by Alice in Chapter 5, " Advice from a Caterpillar" (Chapter 3 in the original manuscript). Alice informs ...

before Alice quietly leave to find the White Rabbit. The Disney versions of the characters later appeared in the Disney television series '' House of Mouse'' and one of them in the final scene of '' Who Framed Roger Rabbit''. *Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear in '' Once Upon a Time in Wonderland'', portrayed by Ben Cotton and Matty Finochio. They appear as the Red Queen's servants where they started out working for the Red King. While Tweedledum is shown to be loyal to the Red Queen, Tweedledee is shown to be loyal to Jafar.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tweedledee and Tweedledum Animated duos Fictional duos Fictional rivalries Fictional twins Lewis Carroll characters Literary duos