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Little Jack Horner
Dette er blevet opfattet som et tegn på, at rimet var velkendt i begyndelsen af det 18. århundrede. Careys digt er en satire over forfatterkollegaen Ambrose Philips, som havde skrevet barnlige digte til sine aristokratiske mæceners små børn. Selv om flere andre børnerim nævnes der, har det om Little Jack Horner været forbundet med opportunistiske handlinger lige siden. Kun seks år senere optrådte det i et andet satirisk værk, Henry Fieldings The Grub Street Opera (1731). Dette værk havde premierminister Robert Walpole som mål og slutter med, at alle personerne forlader scenen "til musikken af Little Jack Horner".
Little Jack Horner
This has been taken to suggest that the rhyme was well known by the early eighteenth century. Carey's poem is a satire on fellow writer Ambrose Philips, who had written infantile poems for the young children of his aristocratic patrons. Although several other nursery rhymes are mentioned there, the one about Little Jack Horner has been associated with acts of opportunism ever since. Just six years later it figured in another satirical work, Henry Fielding's The Grub Street Opera (1731). This had the prime minister Robert Walpole as its target and ends with all the characters processing off the stage 'to the music of Little Jack Horner'.
Little Jack Horner