Jack Orion - Pentangle

Jack Orion was the finest fiddler ever fiddled on the string
He could drive young ladies wild with a tune his wires would sing
He could fiddle the fish out of salt water
Water from a marble stone
Or milk from out a maiden's breast though baby she had none
There he played in the castle hall and there he played them fast asleep
Except it was for the young countess who
For love
She stayed awake
So first he played her a slow air
And then he played it brisk and gay
And oh
Dear love
Behind her glove
This lady she did say
Ere the day has dawned and the cocks have crowed
And flapped their wings so wide
It's you must come to my chamber there
And lie down by my side
So he wrapped his fiddle in a cloth of green
And he stole out on his a tip a 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 crowed
And flapped their wings so wide
I'm bid to go to the lady's door
And stretch out by her side
Lie down
Lie down
My good master
Here's a blanket to your hand
And I'll waken you in as good a time as any cock in this land
Now Tom took the fiddle into his hand
He fiddled and he played for a full hour
Until he played him fast asleep
He's off to the lady's bower
And when he came to her chamber door
He twirled softly at the pin
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 floor right soon he had her laid
And he did not kiss her when he came nor yet
But from her he did go
But in out the lady's bedroom window
The moon like a coal did glow
Ragged are your stockings
Love
And stubbly is your cheek and chin
And tousled is that yellow hair that I saw yestereve
These stockings belong to my boy Tom
They were the first came to my hand
The wind must have tousled my yellow hair and I rode over the land
Now Tom took the fiddle into his hand
He fiddled and he played so saucily
He's off back to his master's house as fast as go could he
Wake up
Wake up
Oh my good master
Why snore you there so loud
There's not a cock in all this land
But has clapped his wings and crowed
Jack Orion took the fiddle into his hand
And he fiddled and he played so merrily
He's off away to the lady's house as fast as go could he
And when he came to the lady's door
He twirled so softly at the pin
Saying Oh
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 returning 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 your house since the day that I was born
Oh
Then it was your young boy Tom that cruelly has beguiled me
Oh woe
That the blood of that ruffian boy did spring in my body
Jack Orion sped off to his own house
Saying
Tom
My boy
Come here to me
He hung him from his own gatepost
High as a willow tree