The Game of All Fours

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

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 neighbors
I'm going down to Warwick, the place I was born

It's May I come with you, my sweet pretty darling?
May I go along in your sweet companies?
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

THE GAME OF 'ALL FOURS' (English) Unaccompanied

All Fours (or High Low Jack and the Game) was still a popular card
game as late as the mid-1930's. The song to which the game gave its
title has, apparently, been collected in many parts of England but,
until Frank Purslow published Gardiner's version in MARROWBONES,
appears never to have got into print. The version here is from the
singing of Sam Larner of Winterton, Norfolk.

c1961. The Wanton Muse LP. Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger