 Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme , probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English @-@ speaking world . He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg , though he is not explicitly described so . The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth @-@ century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott 's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs . Its origins are obscure and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings . 
