Annotation:Have at Thy Coat Old Woman

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HAVE AT THY COAT, OLD WOMAN. AKA and see "Stand Thy Ground Old Harry." English, Country Dance Tune (4/4 time). G Major (Merryweather, Raven): F Major (Chappell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The tune was originally published by John Playford in his The English Dancing Master of 1651, and appears in every subsequent edition of the long-running series, through the 18th edition of 1728 (published by John Young). It also appears in Playford's Musick's Delight on the Cithren of 1666. Walsh included it in his Compleat Country Dancing Master of 1718, and in subsequent editions of that volume in 1731 and 1754. Chappell (1859) and Merryweather (1989) say the tune may date from 1625, perhaps deriving from a ballad in the Pepys Collection -- "A merry new song of a rich Widdowes wooing, That married a young man to her own undooing" -- to which is the refrain:

Have at thy coat old woman,
Have at thy coat old woman,
Here and there and every where,
Have at thy coat old woman.

In Vox Borealis (1641) Chappell finds the following reference to the title:

But all this sport was little to the court-ladies, who began to be very melancholy for lack of company, till at last some young gentlemen revived an old game, called 'Have at thy coat, old woman.'

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 1, 1859; p. 311. Merryweather (Merryweather's Tunes for the English Bagpipe), 1989; p. 41. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 41.

Recorded sources:

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