Old King Cole (Cecil Forsyth)

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• (Posted 2024-03-20)  CPDL #79616:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-03-20).   Score information: Letter, 16 pages, 680 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Old King Cole
Composer: Cecil Forsyth
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: Piano

First published: 1920 J. Fischer & Bro.
Description: VARIATIONS from the nursery rhyme
Wherein is inculcated a Moral: MHΔEN AΓAN

Original text and translations

English text

Old King Cole was a wretched ole soul,
And a wretched old soul was he,
He loved his pipe, and he loved his bowl,
But he hated his fiddlers three.

Fiddle diddle dee went the fiddle,
Fiddle diddle dee, went the viol,
Fiddle diddle dee, went the big, burly bumbo,
Fiddle diddle diddle diddle dee.

When Old King Cole took his morning roll
And his cup of hot coffee,
His meal was lost and his temper crossed
By those terrible fiddlers three.

When Old King Cole to the parlour stole
For a nap on the strict Q. T.,
He heard a noise of those cursed boys,
Those horrible fiddlers three.

Old King Cole, if he went for a stroll
In the garden after tea,
Was at once pursued by that breathless brood,
Those maddening fiddlers three.

Old King Cole got as thin as a pole
And the colour of coupe de pen,
Till a friend observed that they all deserved
To perish, those fiddlers three.

Said Old King Cole, “I will make a hole
In those cads that worry me.”
He discharged his gun, and the good old gun
Discharged the fiddlers three.

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he,
He pulled at his pipe, and he quaffed at his bowl,
And he buried his fiddlers three.