Annotation:Physical Snob

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PHYSICAL SNOB, THE. English, Country Dance Tune (9/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The melody dates to c. 1800. Dance instructions are for a longways dance for three couples, and it is a very popular dance with modern English Country Dancers. There was a broadside ballad called "The Physical Snob" [Roud Number: V1973] that begins:

I am a physical snob, Sirs,
Can cure ev'ry disease very vast!
There's no greater dab at a job, Sirs,
Than litte Emanuel Last.
A son of a seventh son I, Sirs,
Altho' in no chariot I rolls!
As a physician I patch up your bodies,
As a cobbler I patch up your soles.
With my fol de rol, &c.

Your Warnick-lane physic disciples,
Strut about, and look wond'rous big;
But alas! all their knowledge is plac'd
In a gold-headed cane and bush wig;
As for me, Sirs, I cure all distempers,
Howsomever so bad they may be;
But, like many of my learned brothers,
No prescription without I've a fee.
With my fol de rol, &c.

Master Bobby, a crop of this age,
T'other day in great haste for me sent;
Lest death should push him off life's stage,
So away the the gemman I went:
I gave him a potion for sleeping,
Which, a little while after he'd ta'en,
He was put into bed, and he slept, Sirs,
So sound that he ne'r wak'd again.
With my fol de rol, &c.

When my physical habit I quit,
As a cobbler appearing to view,
I ne'er fear each fancy shall hit,
If I gain approbation from you;
And when I'm at work in my stall,
Or in physical habit, I sing,
Whether handling the potion or awl,
Like a true Briton, God save the King.
With my, &c.

The song appears in numerous early 19th century song collections, including The Jovial Songster (1800), The Nightingale (1802) and Charles Wilson's The Myrtle and Vine; or, Complete Vocal Library (1803). Dancing master John Durang (for whom see "annotation:Durang's Hornpipe (1)") contributed several new works to Bill Rickett's circus in late 18th/early 19th century America, including “a Comic Piece, in One Act, called The Physical Snob."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Bentley (Fallibroome Collection, vol. 1).

Recorded sources:

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