old soul,
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe,
And he called for his bowl,
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Every fiddler, he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee, went the fiddlers.
Oh, there's none so rare,
As can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three!

[The traditional Nursery Rhymes of England commence with a
legendary satire on King Cole, who reigned in Britain, as the
old chroniclers inform us, in the third century after Christ.
According to Robert of Gloucester, he was the father of
St. Helena, and if so, Butler must be wrong in ascribing an
obscure origin to the celebrated mother of Constantine. King
Cole was a brave and popular man in his day, and ascended
the throne of Britain on the death of Asclepiod, amidst
the acclamations of the people, or, as Robert of Gloucester
expresses himself, the "fole was tho of this lond y-paid wel
y-nou." At Colchester there is a large earthwork, supposed to
have been a Roman amphitheatre, which goes popularly by
the name of "King Cole's kitchen." According to Jeffrey of
Monmouth, King Cole's daughter was well skilled in music, but
we unfortunately have no evidence to show that her father was
attached to that science, further than what is contained in
the foregoing lines, which are of doubtful antiquity. The
following version of the song is of the seventeenth century,
the one given above being probably a modernization:--

Good King Cole,
He call'd for his bowl,
And he call'd for fidlers three:
And there was fiddle fiddle,
And twice fiddle fiddle,
For 'twas my lady's birth-day;
Therefore we keep holiday,
And come to be merry.]

II.

When good king Arthur ruled this land,
He was a goodly king;
He stole three pecks of barley-meal,
To make a bag-pudding.

A bag-pudding the king did make,
And stuff'd it well with plums:
And in it put great lumps of fat,
As big as my two thumbs.

The king and queen did eat thereof,
And noblemen beside;
And what they could not eat that night,
The queen next morning fried.

III.

[The following song relating to Robin Hood, the celebrated
outlaw, is well known at Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, where it
constitutes one of the nursery series.]

Robin Hood, Robin Hood,