THE GAME OF CARDS

As I was a-walking one midsummer’s morning
I heard the birds whistle and the nightingales play
And there did I spy a beautiful maiden
As I was a-walking all on the highway
And there did I spy a beautiful maiden
As I was a-walking all on the highway

O where are you going, my fair pretty lady?
O where are you going so early this morn
She said: I’m going down to visit my neighbours
I’m going down to Leicester, the place I was born
(Repeat last two lines of each verse)

It’s: May I come with you, my sweet pretty darling?
May I go along in your sweet compan-ie?
Then she turned her head and smiling all at me
Saying: You may come with me, kind sir, if you please

We hadn’t been walking but a few miles together
Before this young damsel began to show free
She sat herself down, saying: Sit down beside me
And the games we shall play shall be one, two and three

I said: My dear lady, if you’re fond of the gaming
There’s one game I know I would like you to learn
The game it is called: The Game of All Fours
So I took out my pack and began the first turn

She cut the cards first and I fell a-dealing
I dealt her a trump and myself the poor jack
She led off her ace and stole my jack from me
Saying: Jack is the card I like best in your pack

Since I dealt them last time, it’s your turn to shuffle
And my turn to show the best card in the pack
Once more she’d the ace and the deuce for to beat me
Once again I had lost when I laid down poor jack

So I took up my hat and I bid her: Good morning
I said: You’re the best that I know at this game
She answered: Young man, if you’ll come back to-morrow
We’ll play the game over and over again

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And from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Game of Cards (I), The

DESCRIPTION: A young man meets a girl by the highway. They walk together; she would play a game. He wants her to learn "the game of all fours." When the "cards" are "dealt," she takes his "jack." If he will return, she offers to "play the game over and over again."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(540))
KEYWORDS: cards sex bawdy seduction game
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy 175, "The Game of Cards" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 36, "All Fours" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Reeves-Circle 2, "All Fours" (1 text)
RoudBishop #24, "The Game of Gards" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, GAMECARD
Roud #232
RECORDINGS:
Sam Larner, "All Fours" (on SLarner02)
Levi Smith, "The Game of Cards" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(540), "The Cards" ("As I walked out one midsummer morning"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 11(1855), Firth b.27(418), "The Cards"; Firth b.34(281), "Game of All Fours"; Firth b.34(120), "Game of All Fours," unknown, n.d.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One-Two-and-Three
The Game of All Fours
As I Walked Out
NOTES [138 words]: The actual card-game of "All Fours" is also known, in the USA, as "Seven-Up," "Old Sledge," "High-Low-Jack," and "Pitch" -- but the use of the game as a sexual metaphor did not make it across the ocean. - PJS
W. C. Hazlitt A Dictionary of Faiths & Folklore, entry on "All Fours," notes that the common amusement of having an adult get down on arms and knees and have a child ride on his back is also known as "all fours," which obviously has high potential for sexual undercurrents.
There are other songs entitled "The Game of Cards" -- e.g. Healy-OISBv2, pp. 81-83. Some may have distant dependence on this, but most are probably distinct. - RBW
Yates, Musical Traditions site Voice of the People suite "Notes - Volume 11" - 11.9.02: "it should be stressed that this song has nothing, whatsoever, to do with the card game." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: K175

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