Old King Cole
A merry old soul who called for his pipe, his bowl and his fiddlers three
Listen
Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Old King Cole was a merry 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 had a fiddle so fine,
And a very fine fiddle had he.
Oh, there's none so rare as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"Old King Cole" first appears in print in William King's Useful Transactions in Philosophy in 1708, though it was clearly already a well-known rhyme by that point. The rhyme has attracted the usual attempts at historical identification — Old King Cole has been proposed as the father of St. Helena, as a third-century British king named Coel, as a cloth merchant from Reading named Thomas Cole, and as various other historical or legendary figures. None of these identifications is convincing.
The rhyme is more plausibly understood as a simple character sketch of a pleasantly self-indulgent monarch. King Cole's requests — a pipe, a bowl, three fiddlers — represent the three great pleasures of the comfortable English life: tobacco, drink, and music. The fiddlers are not just musicians but a small orchestra, each with a fine fiddle, playing for the king's entertainment. The final lines announce that nothing can compare with this combination.
The rhyme has a wonderfully self-satisfied quality. Cole does not conquer kingdoms or deliver justice; he sits, smokes, drinks, and listens to music. He is the merry old soul precisely because his pleasures are simple, immediate, and entirely within reach. The word "merry" appears three times in eight lines, suggesting that merriness is not merely his mood but his defining characteristic.
Our arrangement gives King Cole the lively folk treatment he deserves.
