Here is d’Antin’s version of “Humpty Dumpty”:

Un petit d’un petit S’étonne aux Halles Un petit d’un petit Ah! degrés te fallent Indolent qui ne sort cesse Indolent qui ne se mène Qu’importe un petit d’un petit Tout Gai de Reguennes.

And here is “Little Miss Muffet”:

Lit-elle messe, moffette, Satan ne te fête, Et digne somme coeurs et nouez. À longue qu’aime est-ce pailles d’Eure. Et ne Satan bise ailleurs Et ne fredonne messe. Moffette, ah, ouais!

I think the book was out of print when I learned of it 20 years ago, so I ended up going to the library back then and photocopying the entire book, all 40 pages of it. I stumbled onto that photocopied packet earlier this evening, so I went to Amazon, where I discovered that the book is back in print in a paperback edition from Penguin. I don’t know much about Van Rooten, but a piece that appeared in Time when the book was published identifies him as “a polyglot Manhattan actor.” (It occurred to me that the author’s odd name might be a pseudonym, or even a homophonic translation of his actual name, but a Google search on “Luis d’Antin Van Rooten” and “pseudonym” reveals nothing.) I also discovered tonight that a friend of d’Antin’s named Ormonde de Kay later published a similar book called N’Heures Souris Rames (now out of print), which contained the following version of a classic nursery rhyme:

Georgie Port-régie, peu digne en paille, Qui se dégeule sans mais. Dame craille. Où haine de bouées ce qu’ aime a tout pilé: Georgie Port-régie règne. Ohé.

Okay, I’m done with this post. Tiens, de.