Little Tommy Tucker
| "Little Tommy Tucker" | |
|---|---|
| Roud #19618 | |
 1901 illustration by William Wallace Denslow | |
| Song | |
| Written | England |
| Published | c. 1744 |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
| Writer | Traditional |
| Language | English |
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
"Little Tommy Tucker" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19618.
Lyrics
Common modern versions include:
- Little Tom Tucker
- Sings for his supper.
- What shall we give him?
- White bread and butter.
- How shall he cut it
- Without a knife?
- How will he be married
- Without a wife?[1]
Origins
The earliest recorded version of this rhyme is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has only four lines.[1] The full version was produced in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765).[1] There are references to various parts of the rhyme in earlier works.[1] To 'sing for one's supper' was a proverbial phrase by the seventeenth century. An excellent new Medley (c. 1620) included the line 'Tom would eat meat but wants a knife'.[1]
Various Thomas Tuckers have been identified, including a Bachelor of Arts who was appointed 'Prince or Lorde of the Revells' at St. John's College, Oxford in 1607, and a 'Tom Tuck' who appears in one of John Herrick's epigrams in Witt's Recreations (1640).[1]
In popular culture
- Was played by Russell Coles in Babes in Toyland (1934)
- Tommy Tucker is the name of a variety of rose.[2]