| "Lucy Locket" | |
|---|---|
| Nursery rhyme | |
| Published | 1842 |
| Songwriter(s) | Unknown |
"Lucy Locket" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19536. [1]
Common modern versions include:
Another version:
One version of the song shares its tune with "Jack and Jill" and "Yankee Doodle", with Yankee Doodle emerged in North America in the mid-eighteenth century, but it is not clear which set of lyrics emerged first. [2]
Historically, the term "pocket" referred to a pouch worn around the waist by women in the 17th to 19th centuries. Skirts or dresses of the time had an opening at the waistline to allow access to the pocket which hung around the woman's waist by a ribbon or tape. The opening in the skirt was formed by leaving unstitched, near the waist, the panels of fabric for the skirt. Fabrics could be around 20 inches wide, so seaming the selvedges offered a reliable opportunity for an opening. Corresponding opening in the panels of fabric forming the petticoat underneath.
The rhyme was first recorded by James Orchard Halliwell in 1842, but there is evidence that it was popular in Britain and America at least in the early nineteenth century. [3] Various persons have been identified with Lucy Locket and Kitty Fisher. Halliwell suggested that they were "two celebrated courtesans of the time of Charles II", but no supportive evidence has been found. [3]
The name Lucy Locket was used by John Gay in Beggar's Opera (1728), but may have already been proverbial. [3] Kitty Fisher may have been Catherine Marie Fischer (d. 1767) a British courtesan who was the subject of three unfinished portraits by Joshua Reynolds and a number of songs, including an air recorded in Thompson's Country Dances (1760). [4]
"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known American song and a nursery rhyme, the early versions of which predate the Seven Years' War and American Revolution. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut. Its Roud Folk Song Index number is 4501. The melody is thought to be much older than both the lyrics and the subject, going back to folk songs of Medieval Europe.
"Georgie Porgie" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has the Roud Folk Song Index number 19532.
"Hey Diddle Diddle" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19478.
"Pussy cat, Pussy cat" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 15094.
"Jack Be Nimble" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13902.1882
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"As I was going by Charing Cross", is an English language nursery rhyme. The rhyme was first recorded in the 1840s, but it may have older origins in street cries and verse of the seventeenth century. It refers to the equestrian statue of King Charles I in Charing Cross, London, and may allude to his death or be a puritan satire on royalist reactions to his execution. It was not recorded in its modern form until the mid-nineteenth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20564.
"Ding Dong Bell" or "Ding Dong Dell" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12853.
Hot Cross Buns was an English street cry, later perpetuated as a nursery rhyme and an aid in musical education. It refers to the spiced English confection known as a hot cross bun, which is associated with the end of Lent and is eaten on Good Friday in various countries. The song has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13029.
"Monday's Child" is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future from his or her day of birth and to help young children remember the seven days of the week. As with all nursery rhymes, there are many versions. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19526.
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"Little Poll Parrot" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20178.
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"I Love Little Pussy", alternatively called "I Love Little Kitty", is an English language nursery rhyme about a person who is kind to a pet cat. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12824.
"Round and round the garden" is an English language nursery rhyme typically accompanied by fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19235.
"Girls and Boys Come Out to Play" or "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play" is a nursery rhyme that has existed since at least 1708. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5452.