Little Tommy Tucker

= Little Tommy Tucker =

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"Little Tommy Tucker" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19618.[1]

'''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?[2]

'''Origins '''The earliest recorded version of this rhyme is from Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (c. 1744), which has only four lines.[2] The full version was produced in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765).[2] There are references to various parts of the rhyme in earlier works.[2] 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'.[2]

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).[2]'''In popular culture  Notes  External links '''
 * Was played by Russell Coles in Babes in Toyland
 * Tommy Tucker is the name of a variety of rose.[3]
 * Tommy Tucker (squirrel), possibly named for Little Tommy Tucker
 * 1) I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 416–7.
 * 2) http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=17069 Rose: Little Tommy Tucker.
 * 1) http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/pl.php?n=17069 Rose: Little Tommy Tucker.
 * The full text of Little Tommy Tucker at Wikisource
 * Media related to Little Tommy Tucker at Wikimedia Commons