Tweedledum and Tweedledee
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Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There and in a nursery rhyme by an anonymous author. The names originally came from a John Byrom poem, and are now used for any comical duos, notably the Newcastle United centre-half partnership of Titus Bramble and Jean-Alain Boumsong.
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John Byrom's poem
Its first appearance in print is in a poem by John Byrom (1692-1763):
- Some say, that Signor Bononcini,
- Compared to Handel's a mere ninny;
- Others aver, to him, that Handel
- Is scarcely fit to hold a candle.
- Strange! That such high dispute should be
- 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
- —John Byrom, On the Feuds Between Handel and Bononcini
In Byrom's poem the words are clearly onamatopoeic representations of similar musical phrases.
Anonymous nursery rhyme
Starting in the early nineteenth century, collections of nursery rhymes began to 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.
The editors of The Annotated Mother Goose quote Martin Gardner, editor of The Annotated Alice as saying "No one knows whether the nursery rhyme... had reference to [Byrom's] famous musical battle, or whether it was an older rhyme from which Byrom borrowed in the last line of his doggerel."
Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel
A third and perhaps most familiar source is Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There. Carroll, after quoting the nursery rhyme, introduces two characters named Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Although physically twins, they are argumentative contrarians. As predestined, they end up fighting over a rattle. John Tenniel cleverly captured Carroll's description in a well-known illustration. The two characters appeared in Disney's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland despite the fact that the movie was mostly based on the first book. They also appear as bosses in American McGee's Alice and as the character 'General Doppelganger' in The Looking Glass Wars.
In the anime Kiddy Grade
Two fraternal twins called Tweedledee (female) and Tweedledum (male) appear in the anime Kiddy Grade. Tweedledee has the power of "Strom" (which allows her to control electric fields) and Tweedledum has the power of "Magnetfelt" (which allows him to control magenetic fields). When their abilities are combined they can create a gravitational phenomonon known as "Windstoß".
In Batman Comics
In DC Comics, there are a couple of long time Batman villains that call themselves after the characters Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There, because they are cousins that happen to be identical and very similar to the original versions.
