Old King Cole

Introduction – King Cole Illustrations

Illustrations of Old King Cole most often include the basic elements enumerated in the first six lines of the rhyme – king, pipe, bowl, and fiddlers three. Although artists have offered many different visions of the king, he is usually portrayed as obese, sometimes with an upper torso very large and a lower torso very small, making him a close kin of Humpty Dumpty. The pipe, which could as easily have referred to a musical instrument to allow him to join in the music-making of the fiddlers, is almost always pictured as one filled with tobacco. Often the pipe appears to be symbolic of the king’s comfort as he is seen relaxing and blowing smoke (sometimes smoke rings) into the air. The fiddlers provide perhaps the greatest latitude for artistic interpretation as will be seen in the images below. All in all, Old King Cole is a walking/dancing health hazard with his obesity and his smoking.