Notes

Here's the version from An Alphabet of Old Friends by Walter Crane (this is the version in the mp3):

Jack Sprat would eat no fat,
His wife would eat no lean;
Was not that a pretty trick
To make the platter clean?

Kate Greenaway's illustration below (2nd) is pretty, but Richardson got the spirit of the rhyme just right in his illustration at the top of the page! The 3rd illustration can be found in The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright.

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Below is the version from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. This version includes a "Moral"...

Jack Spratt could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean,
And so, betwixt them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean.
MORAL:
Better to go to bed supperless than to rise in debt.

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Here's one more version from Traditional Nursery Songs of England with Pictures by Eminent Modern Artists edited by Felix Summerly (1843):

Jack Sprat would eat no fat,
His wife would eat no lean,
Now was not this a pretty trick
To make the platter clean?

You can find the version of Jack Sprat that's recited in the mp3 in the notes below.

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Thanks and Acknowledgements

The first illustration is from Mother Goose, The Original Volland Edition (1915), edited and arranged by Eulalie Osgood Grover and illustrated by Frederick Richardson (with some graphical editing by Mama Lisa) and the second illustration comes from Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose (1881).

Thanks so much!