Annotation:Polly Hopkins Waltz

Back to Polly Hopkins Waltz

---

POLLY HOPKINS WALTZ. American, English; Waltz. D Major (Kerr, Howe/Diamond): C Major (Howe/Accordeon). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The waltz was a staple of Boston music publisher Elias Howe's publications. A song from an c. 1820’s broadside printed in York goes:

The other morn I met with Polly Hopkins,
How do you do, how do you do,
None the better Mr. Tomkins
For seeing you, for seeing you.
With all my wealty -Be quiet pray
A man of health -do get away,
Oh! cruel pretty Polly Hopkins,
Don't tell me so, don't tell me so,
Oh! silly, silly Mr. Tomkins,
To use me so, to use me so.
Fal, lal, lal, &c.

Baltimore publisher George Willig printed a variant [1] of the comic song under the title “Polly Hopkins & Tommy Tompkins” in 1827, a duet “as sung by the Miss Gillinghams.” Words and music are credited to John Paddon (1827). It begins:

TOMMY: Pretty, pretty Polly Hopkins, how d'ye do? how d'ye do?
POLLY: None the better Tommy Tompkins for seeing you, for seeing you.
TOMMY: I'm a man of wealth.
POLLY: Be quiet pray.
TOMMY: Take all my pelf.
POLLY: Pray get away.
TOMMY: Oh cruel, cruel Polly Hopkins to treat me so, to treat me so.
POLLY: Oh cruel Tommy Tomkins to tease me so, to tease me so.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Burt (Cornhuskers Book Of Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes), 1938. Howe (The Musician's Companion, Part 1), 1842; p. 37. Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; p. 20. Howe (Diamond School for the Violin), c. 1861. Jarmen & Hansen (Old Time Dance Tunes), New York, 1951. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 13, p. 51.

Recorded sources:

---