Old King Coul (3)
Old King Coul was a jolly old soul,
And a jolly old soul was he:
Old king Coul he had a brown bowl,
And they brought him in fidlers three:
And every fidler was a very good fidler,
And a very good fidler was he.
Fidell-didell, fidell-didell, with the fidlers three:
And there's no a lass in a' Scotland
Compared to our sweet Marjorie.
[further stanzas add on the personnel, the music being
repeated ad lib. for the relevant phrase; last stanza:]
Old King Coul was a jolly old soul,
And a jolly old soul was he:
Old King Coul he had a brown bowl,
And they brought him in drummers three.
Rub-a-dub, rub-a-dub, with the drummers;
Twarra-rang, twarra-rang, with the trumpeters;
Twingle-twangle, twingle-twangle, with the harpers;
Ha-didell, how-didell, with the pipers;
Fidell-didell, fidell-didell, with the fiddlers three:
And there's no a lass in a' Scotland
Compared to our sweet Marjorie.
________________________________________________________
Herd 1776 (1869 repr. II.183), and almost verbatim (via
Burns) in SMM V (1796), 486 (no. 473), with music; [Our
auld king Coul,/ fill'd a jolly brown bowl,/ And he ca'd
for his fidlers three/ quo' the fiddlers three/ 5-6
omitted/ 8 Like our]. Stenhouse (Illus. 417) is at some
pains to supply Celtic authenticity for Cole ("the
fabled father of the giant Fyn M'Coule"), but it seems
an English song. (He also refers to a song in PPM
[1719-20, III.61], as a parody; but the resemblance is
mostly in the cumulation. Dr. Wm. King quotes "Good
King Cole" in his Useful Transactions [1708-9], but
mixes it up with PPM's "Four and twenty fiddlers", as
William Chappell notes [PMOT, 634].) The SMM tune is a
version of the air in Gay's Achilles (1733). See ODNR
134 (no. 112).
MS
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!