Tweedledum and Tweedledee

The first known mention of Tweedledum and Tweedledee is found in an epigram (1727) by John Byrom. It targets the rivalry of two composers — Georg Friedrich Händel and Giovanni Battista Bononcini — in the London of the 1720s.

The pair appears again in a nursery rhyme (printed around 1805) which may (or may not) have been old enough to be known to Byrom.

This rhyme is now worldwide well-known because Lewis Carroll included it in his second Alice book Through the Looking-Glass (1871) (Chapter IV. Tweedledum and Tweedldee).

The epigram (1927)

An Epigram on the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini

Some say, compared to Bononcini
That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny;
Others aver that he to Handel
Is scarceley fit to hold a candle;
Strange all this difference should be
'Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.

The nursery rhyme

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.