I do not like thee, Doctor Fell

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell is a nursery rhyme, said to have been written by satirical English poet Tom Brown in 1680.^[1][2]

Origin and basis

The anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme is that when Brown was a student at the Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief. The dean of Christ Church, John Fell (1625–1686), who later went on to become the Bishop of Oxford, expelled Brown; but offered to take him back if he passed a test. If Brown could extemporaneously translate the thirty-second epigram of Martial (a well known Roman epigramist), his expulsion would be cancelled. The epigram in Latin is as follows:

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;

Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te.^[3]

Brown made the impromptu English translation which became the verse:

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,

The reason why - I cannot tell;

But this I know, and know full well,

I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.^[3]

Recognition

The nursery rhyme "I do not like thee, Doctor Fell" was not included in Mother Goose collections until 1926, following the rhyme's inclusion in "Less-Familiar Nursery Rhymes" by Robert Graves of I, Claudius fame.

In popular culture

Doctor Fell has since been used in other literature, such as by the author Thomas Harris, who used the name as a pseudonym for his most famous antagonist, the cannibalistic psychiatrist, socialite and serial killer Hannibal Lecter in his novel Hannibal. The 1979 Bernard Farrell play I Do Not Like Thee, Doctor Fell, used the rhyme as its title. Dr. John Fell is a fictional killer's pseudonym in John Sandford's novel Buried Prey. In Linda Medley's graphic novel, Castle Waiting, Doctor Fell is an addled but well-meaning physician who is haunted by memories of treating plague victims.

Similarly, Robert Louis Stevenson alludes to the rhyme in his novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He and other characters have an immediate "disgust" and "loathing" of the titular Mr Hyde, and yet this automatic reaction perplexes him. He muses on the possible reasons for it, including in them, "or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell?"

David Collins repeats the nursery rhyme while he is under the spell of the ghost Quentin Collins in episodes 680 and 681 of the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. David Collins eerily quotes the nursery rhyme as another character is being terrorized. The nursery rhyme is also repeated in episode 335 when Dr. Woodard begins to suspect that Barnabas Collins may be a vampire.

In the mini-series, Jewel in the Crown, Guy Perron quotes the rhyme in reference to his dislike of Ronald Merrick.

Justice Stephen Breyer used this nursery rhyme during oral argument in Lawrence v. Texas.^[4]

In the 1943 circus drama The Dark Tower, Dora Shogun (Josephine Wilson) rebukes Dr. Torg (Herbert Lom) with the first couplet of Dr. Fell.

John Dickson Carr uses the rhyme in several Dr. Gideon Fell novels.

Author David Neilsen based his debut middle grade novel, Dr. Fell and the Playground of Doom, off of an illustration he found of Dr. Fell by children's illustrator Trina Schart Hyman.

References