The Hand You're Given | Medieval Dance Music with Lyrics · Tavern Jig

Medieval folk music with lyrics: an original English jig and tavern music for D&D nights, sung by Silas Halfpenny over a strummed cittern, a hand-struck bodhran and a high wooden whistle, with a full room stamping, clapping and shouting every chorus back. Joan has stood at the wall for three tunes, and half the bar has been hard at work, out loud, on the politest possible way to fetch her off it. Good for a fantasy festival scene at the table, a crowded kitchen with the chairs pushed back, or any company that wants to shout DOWN THE MIDDLE at the speakers until the neighbours knock. Keep a seat at the table:    / @thelastcopper   From the songbook of Silas Halfpenny, entry the thirty-sixth. Joan has had the wall three tunes. The line went up the length of the house, and every figure the miller has called since has gone down the middle and back without her in it. So I put the question to the bar, out loud, and half the bar took it up with me: how do you fetch a woman off a wall and leave her a plain way to say no? Gil had a version. The miller had two. By the third tune we had it very nearly right. Don't spend three tunes on the wording. Hold your hand out when the line comes past. — Silas Halfpenny ━━━━━━━━━━ LYRICS ━━━━━━━━━━ That wall has had Joan three tunes. Her boot has had all three. She's not been stood there wanting. She's been reading the floor. You take the hand you're given in this house. You hand it on. Where she's from they dance it in rings — you step in where you stand. No one is put anywhere. The ring takes what's to hand. Here it's a line — a top and a foot — and the foot comes past that wall, the once a tune. And she has not missed a pass. Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) There's no asking in it. You stand, and you're in, and the line brings you on! DOWN THE MIDDLE and through! The miller's got the smith's wife, and the smith has got the bride. Gil's got the woman he has never once walked beside, and he's not looked at her yet. The figure leaves no room. Marta put the benches to the wall and went back to her broom. Down the line and back again, and on they all get sent, and not one of them chose the hand they hold. And on it went. Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) There's no asking in it. You stand, and you're in, and the line brings you on! DOWN THE MIDDLE and through! And I've stood at the foot of this line with my eye on that wall. Three tunes I've been working out how to fetch her off it — a way to put it that left her a plain way to say no. Half this bar has had a go at the wording. We had it near. And the foot of the line comes past. A hand comes out, because a hand comes out. That's all it's ever about. And Joan is off that wall before the miller can call, and the call comes out of her — "up the outside!" — and that's all. The miller laughs and hands her to Gil, and Gil hands her along, and she's the length of the house and back in the tail of one song. She was never stood there waiting to be asked. She was waiting on the foot of the line. And the foot came past. Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) There's no asking in it. You stand, and you're in, and the line brings you on! DOWN THE MIDDLE and through! Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) Take the hand you're given. Hand it on! (In you come!) There's no asking in it. You stand, and you're in, and the line brings you on! DOWN THE MIDDLE and through! Three tunes on the wording, friends. Half the bar was in on it. She never wanted saying to. She wanted her turn at the foot. Reading a room is my trade, and I read that one wrong — and I'd stand there and read it wrong again. There she goes. Down the middle, and through.