Also see Jack O'Rian the Fiddler

JACK ORION

Sung by Martin Carthy on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick's “But Two Came By” LP (and the CD re-release).

Jack Orion was as good fiddler
As ever fiddled on a string,
And he could drive young women mad
By the tune his wires would sing.

But he would fiddle the fish out of salt water,
Water from bare marble stone,
Or the milk from out of a maiden's breast,
Though baby she had none.

And there he played in the castle hall,
And there he played them fast asleep,
Except it was for the young countess
And for love she stayed awake.

And first he played them a slow slow air,
And then he played it brisk and gay,
And it's “O dear love, be kind ... (?)”
And the lady she did say.

And the day has dawned and the cocks have crown
And flapped their wings so wide.
“It's you must come up to my chamber there
And lie down by my side.”

So he lapped his fiddle in a cloth of green
And he stole out on mystic toe (??),
And he's off back to his young boy Tom
As fast as he could go.

“Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crown
And flapped their wings so wide,
I'm bid to go up to that lady's door
And stretch out by her side.”

“Lie down, lie down, my good master.
And here's a blanket to your kind (?).
I'll waken you in as good a time
As any cock in the land.”

Oh, Tom took the fiddle into his hand,
And he fiddled and he sang for half an hour
Until he played him fast asleep
And he's off to the lady's bower.

And when he come to the countess' door
He twirled so softly at the pin,
And the lady true to her promise
Rose up and let him in.

He did not take that lady gay
To bolster nor to bed,
But down upon the hard cold bedroom floor
Right soon he had her laid.

And neither did he kiss her when he came
Nor when from her he did go,
But in at the lady's bedroom window
The moon like a coal did glow.

“Oh, ragged are your stockings, love,
And stubbly is your cheek and chin,
And tousled is that yellow hair
That I saw late yestre'en.”

“Me stockings belong to my boy Tom,
But they were the first came to my hand,
And the wind did tousle my yellow hair
As I road over the land.”

Tom took the fiddle into his hand
And he fiddled and he played so saucily,
And he's off back to his master's house
As fast as a ... could ... (?).

“When up? When up, my good master (?)
Why snore you there so loud?
For there is not a cock in all this land
But has flapped his wings and crowed.”

Jack Orion took the fiddle into his hand,
And he fiddled and he played so merrily,
And he's off away to the lady's house
As fast as a ... could ... (?).

And when he come to the lady's door,
He twirled so softly at the ring
“O my dear, it's your true love.
Rise up and let me in.”

She said, “Surely you didn't leave behind
A golden brooch nor a velvet glove.
Or are you returned back again
To taste more of my love?”

Jack Orion he swore a bloody oath
By oak by ash by bitter thorn:
“Lady, I never was in this room
Since the day that I was born.”

“Oh, then it was your own boy Tom
That cruelly has beguiled me,
And woe that the blood of that ruffian boy
Should spring in my body.”

Jack Orion took off to his own house
Saying, “Tom, my boy, come here to me.”
And he hanged that boy from his own gatepost
As high as the willow tree.
^^
It's on the Web at

http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/~gillard/watersons/jack.html

Gaz

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 25-Jan-02.

Verse 4: And it's oh dear love be kind be kind, the lady she did say

Verse 6: So he lapped his fiddle in a cloth of green and he stole out on his tiptoe

Verse 8: Lie down, lie down, my good master, and here's a blanket to your hand

Verse 15: And he's off back to his master's house as fast as the coal could gae

Verse 16: Then up, then up, my good master, why snore you there so loud for there

Verse 17: And he's off away to the lady's house as fast as the coal could gae

Susanne

http://hum2mac1.murdoch.edu.au/watersons/jack.html

cheers, Garry Gillard

Garry