Jack Orion

Lyrics

[Verse 1] Jack Orion was as good a fiddler As ever fiddled on a string He could make young women mad To this tune his fiddle sang [Verse 2] He could fiddle the fish out of salt water Or water from a marble stone Or the milk out of a maiden's breast Though baby she got none [Verse 3] As a-he sat fiddling in a castle hall He's played them all so sound asleep Excepting for the young countess And for love, she stayed awake [Verse 4] First he played a slow, slow air And then he played it brisk and gay And oh, dear love, behind her hand This lady, she did say [Verse 5] "When the day has dawned and the cocks have crown And spread their wings so wide It's you who may come to my bedroom door To lay down by my side" [Verse 6] So he slept his fiddle in a cloth of green And stole out on his tip-toe And then he's run off to his own house As fast as he could go [Verse 7] "When day has dawned and the cocks have crown And spread their wings so wide It's I am bidden to that lady's door To stretch out by her side" [Verse 8] "Lie down and rest, my good master And here's a blanket to your head I'll awaken you in as good a time As any cockerel in the land" [Verse 9] When Tom took the fiddle into his hand He fiddled and sang for a full hour And he made his master fast asleep And he's off to the lady's bower [Verse 10] And when he came to that lady's door He's twirled so softly at the pin And the lady, true to her promise Rose up and let him in [Verse 11] Well he didn't take that lady, that lady gay To bolster nor to bed But down upon her bower floor He quickly had her laid [Verse 12] He neither kissed her when he came Nor yet when from her he he did go And in and out of the window The moon like a coal did glow [Verse 13] "Oh ragged are your stockings, love And stubbled is your cheek and chin And tangled is that yellow hair That I saw yesterday" [Verse 14] "The stockings belong to my boy Tom They were the first that came to my hand The wind, it did tangle my yellow hair As I rode over the land" [Verse 15] Tom took his a-fiddle into his hand So saucy there he did sing And then he's off to his master's house As a-fast as he could run [Verse 16] "Rise up, rise up, my good master Why do you snore so loud? Ah, there's not a cock in all this land But has clapped his wings and crowed" [Verse 17] Jack Orion's off to that lady's house As a-fast as he could run Saying, "Here am I, de-n-dee-dn-dum-da Rise up and let me in" [Verse 18] "Surely you didn't leave behind A bracelet or a velvet glove? Or is it you've come back again To taste more of my love?" [Verse 19] Oh, Jack Orion swore a bloody oath By oak and ash and bitter thorn Saying, "Lady, I never was in your house Since the day that I was born" [Verse 20] "Oh, then it was your young foot page That has so cruelly beguiled me And woe that the blood of the ruffian lad Should spring in my body" [Verse 21] Oh, Jack Orion's run to his own house Saying, "Tom, me boy, come here to me" And he's hung that boy from his own gatepost As high as a willow tree