Annotation:Young Jemmy

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YOUNG JEMMY. English, Air (4/4 time). B Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Young Jemmy [1] was an illustrated blackletter ballad sold on London streets in 1681. Although anonymous, it has been reliably attributed to Aphra Behn, one of the most prominent playwrights of the Restoration and an ardent supporter of the Duke of York, the future James II. The air appears in The Genteel Companion for the Recorder (1683), 180 Loyal Songs (1683 & 1694), The Village Opera (1729), Love and Revenge, or The Vintner Outwitted, and The Bay's Opera (1730). Chappell (1859) explains in the beginning of the 1700's the Pretender (James Stuart) was called "Young Jemmy" and, though not originally written for the cause, the tune became a favorite of the Jacobites. A 1725 account purportedly written by a German visitor, quoted by Chappell, goes: "I never can pass through Cranbourn Alley (London), but I am astonished at the remissness or lenity of the magistrates in suffering the Pretender's interest to be carried on and promoted in so public and shameful a manner as it there is. Here a fellow stands eternally bawling out his Pye Corner pastorals in behalf of 'Dear Jemmy, Lovely Jemmy.'"

The tune and dance instructions were also printed in John Playford's Dancing Master [2], from the 7th edition of 1686 through the 18th edition of 1728 (then published by John Young).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times, vol. 2), 1859; pp. 36 37.

Recorded sources:

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