What is Jack's crown?

Question

The English nursing rhyme "Jack and Jill" has several verses. The first verse is:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after

What is Jack's crown?

Answer 1

The most likely answer, courtesy of Merriam-Webster:

3. : the highest part: such as
   a : the topmost part of the skull or head

Other possible interpretations according to Albert Jack's Pop Goes the Weasel: The Secret Meaning of Nursery Rhymes:

One popular suggestion for its origin is that Louis XVI of France and his queen, the infamous Marie Antoinette are Jack and Jill. But the only real supporting evidence for that is the idea that Jack broke (or lost) his crown and that Jill came tumbling after him, or at least her head did.

He notes that the executions of the royal family took place in 1793 and the poem was first published in 1795, which suggests a potential causal link. In that case, the "crown" would be a literal regal piece of headwear.

He also says that Kilmersdon, a small village in Somerset, England, has claimed to be the origin of the rhyme:

The story told in Kilmersdon is that during 1697 the village was home to a young unmarried couple who did a lot of their courting up on a hall, away from the prying eyes of the local gossips. Consequently Jill became pregnant, but just before the baby was born, Jack was killed by a rock that fell off of the hill and landed on his head. Only days later, Jill also died in childbirth.

So, in that case, the crown would again be the top of the head.

Yet another story lies in King Charles I's attempt to reform taxes on alcohol.

Up until that point, wines and ales could be bought as a pint; a half pint, known as a "Jack"; or a quarter pint, known as "Gill" (pronounced the same way as the "gill" of a fist) — hence Jill. As the measures came tumbling down, Charles had effectively gained his tax increase, as slightly less alcohol could then be bought for the same price.

Beer glass manufacturers, even today, often mark the half-pint mark with a symbol of a crown as a symbol of the decrease. Thus, the "crown" would be that reduced measure, with the "gill" similarly decreasing in pace.

He has two more mentions of origin, one noting that Shakespeare paired the names of Jack and Jill in A Midsummer Night's Dreams, indicating that it might be a general term for a generic man and a woman, and noting the Norse myth of Hjuki and Bil, who stole a pail of water from the Moon god, but neither anecdote relates to the use of "crown".

Answer 2

It means his head.

See definition 2.1 of "crown" at Oxford Dictionaries:

The top part of a person's head or a hat:
‘his hair was swept straight back over his crown’

This is confirmed when you look at later verses of the same poem which have been included in some editions:

• Up Jack got, and home did trot
  As fast as he could caper;
  To old Dame Dob, who patched his nob
  With vinegar and brown paper.

  _{-- P. Opie and I. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (emphasis mine)}

• Up Jack got and home did trot,
  As fast as he could caper;
  And went to bed and bound his head
  With vinegar and brown paper.

  _{-- L. E. Walter, Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes (emphasis mine)}

Answer 3

In addition to "crown=head" as noted, in Chris Roberts's excellent book Heavy Words Lightly Thrown, he posits:

One saucy explanation of this rhyme is that "up the hill to fetch a pail of water" is actually a euphemism for having sex, and that "losing your crown" means "losing your virginity" (in much the same way that people might "go to see a man about a dog" or get up to a bit of "how's your father" if they want to be vague about what they're doing). So here you have a rhyme about a young couple slipping off for a bit of "slap and tickle" and the regrets that come later.

Answer 4

Let's use common sense.

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.

First of all, who goes up a hill to get water? Water runs downhill. That's the setup.

Jack fell down and broke his crown,

Jack's crown is his virginity, and when he ejaculated his crown came down. A man's crown is his penis. It's not like Jack had a dentist to put a crown in his mouth, or he was king. They were kids, probably teenagers.

And Jill came tumbling after

During sex, when a man finishes, he lies there (Jack fell down) and Jill came tumbling "after" - what do you mean, after?

Jack never fell down the hill. They were having sex away from the village.