As Jack went walking in London City,
All the people thought Jack wasn't witty;
But Jack he heard what Nancy said:
That night the squire with her would lay.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
I'll tie a string around my little finger,
And I'll hang it through my bedroom window;
You'll come there and you'll pull the string,
And I'll come down and I'll let you in.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
Well now, says Jack, can't I adventure,
To pull that string from Nancy's window?
I'll go there and I'll pull the string,
And she'll come down and she'll let me in.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
What brought you here, my saucy fellow,
To rob me of my gold and silver?
Well, I came here and I pulled the string,
And you came down and you let me in.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
Jack spent that night with lovely Nancy,
And he tickled her right to her fancy;
Jack spent with her all that long night,
Until it broke into broad daylight.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
Since you have got above me garter,
No other man shall follow after;
I love ya, Jack, as I love me life,
I'll be your beloved wife.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
Now, when that squire came to remember,
About that string from Nancy's window;
Well, he went there to pull the string,
But our boy Jack sure he had it pulled in.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
Now, Jack got married to lovely Nancy,
And he dressed her up in silk so fancy;
I wish them joy throughout their life,
Jack and his beloved wife.
Fall de doll diddle dero right fall de dero dee.
####.... Author unknown. Variant of a 19th-century British broadside ballad, Jack The Jolly Tar (I), [Laws K40] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G Malcolm Laws, 1957). Also a variant of an old British broadside ballad The Merchant's Courtship To The Brazier's Daughter, published without a publisher's name and without a date, and archived at The Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Harding B 22(169) ....####
This arrangement recorded by The Punters (Said She Couldn't Dance, trk#11, 1998, Loggerhead Records Inc, Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada, distributed by Universal Music Group).
A variant was also collected by Maud Karpeles [1885-1976] and published as #38, Jack In London City, in Folksongs From Newfoundland (Faber & Faber, London, 1971; Oxford, 1934).
Genevieve Lehr noted that Linda Slade learned the song from Mac Masters, one of the foremost singers in Placentia Bay. Lehr further noted that there are many Irish and English variants, one of which has been recorded by the Sons of Erin as Yarmouth Town.
A variant was also published as #50, Tarry Sailor, in Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1933; Folklore Associates, Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1968.
