"Lucy Locket" is an English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...

. It has a Roud Folk Song Index

Roud Folk Song Index

The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...

 number of 19536.

Lyrics

Common modern versions include:

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,

Kitty Fisher found it;

Not a penny was there in it,

Only ribbon round it.

Tune

The song shares its tune with "Yankee Doodle

Yankee Doodle

"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known Anglo-American song, the origin of which dates back to the Seven Years' War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut...

" which emerged in North America the mid-eighteenth century, but it is not clear which set of lyrics emerged first.

Origins and meaning

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.

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. The name Lucy Locket was used by John Gay in Beggar's Opera (1728), but may have already have been proverbial. Kitty Fisher may have been Catherine Marie Fischer

Kitty Fisher

Kitty Fisher was a prominent British courtesan. Her celebrity was boosted by the attention that Sir Joshua Reynolds and other artists paid her...

 (d. 1767) a British courtesan

Courtesan

A courtesan was originally a female courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person.In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

 who was the subject of three unfinished portraits by Joshua Reynolds

Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...

 and a number of songs, including an air recorded in Thompson's Country Dances (1760).

Bengali lyrics

The song "Laal jhuti kakatua" (Bangla: লাল ঝুটি কাকাতুয়া), set to the "Yankee Doodle"/"Lucy Locket" melody, is a favorite among the Bengali people

Bengali people

The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...

. It goes:

Bengali lyrics	English translation
লাল ঝুটি কাকাতুয়া ধরেছে যে বায়না চাই তার লাল পিঠে চিরুণী আর আয়না	A red-tufted cockatoo has a whim She wants her red ribbon comb and mirror.

The Bengali Version of "Lucy Locket" was composed for the Film Badshah in the year 1964. The song was sung by Rani Mukherjee, daughter of famous Bengali singer Hemanta Mukherjee.