Robert Overton? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: The question and answer of the following exasperating riddle appear to be nonsensical:
Question: Why is a mouse when it spins?
Answer: The higher, the fewer.
Would you please examine the provenance of this conundrum?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Robert Overton published “Ten Minutes: Holiday Yarns and Recitations” as a Christmas book for gift-givers. “The Manchester Guardian” of Manchester, England mentioned the work in October of 1892.1
Overton’s version of the pseudo-riddle was somewhat different. He included it in the eighteenth tale titled “A Cry from Colney Hatch”. The riddle began with “when” instead of “why”:2
Question: When is a mouse if it spins?
Answer: Because the higher it gets the fewer.
The ill-fated protagonist Harehead encounters a prankster named Smoogleslush who tells him the question and answer of the riddle, but Harehead is unable to comprehend the conundrum. After some misadventures he is driven to madness by his inability to grasp the riddle, and he is placed into an asylum at Colney Hatch. The astute reader surmises that the two statements really form a pseudo-riddle. The pair was deliberately constructed to be unintelligible. The question and answer have no ready interpretations.
Below are additional selected citations and excerpts in chronological order.
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “When Is a Mouse If It Spins?” “Because the Higher It Gets the Fewer””