Annotation:Peggy now the King has come

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PEGGY, NOW THE KING'S COME. AKA and see "Carle an' the King come." English, Air. "Peggy, now the King's come" is the first line of Song IX in Allan Ramsay's 'Pastoral' work The Gentle Shepherd (1725), sung by the character Mause. It goes:

Peggy, now the King's come,
Peggy, now the King's come,
Thou may dance, and I shall sing,
Peggy, since the King's come;
Nae mair the haukeys shalt thou milk,
But changy thy plaiding coat for silk,
And be a lady of that ilk,
Now, Peggy, since the King's come.

Ramsay wrote The Gentle Shepherd without music, but later, after the success of John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1729), added songs. He later published the same song in his Tea Table Miscellany (1733, p. 222). The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800.

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