Annotation:By Jove I’ll be free

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BY JOVE I'LL BE FREE. AKA - "Come all you young lovers." English, Air (3/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The song appears in John Simpson's The Delightful Pocket Companion, vol 2 (London, 1745), attributed to Mr. Boyce. It subsequently appeared in other songsters, such as John Fielding's The Convivial Songster (London, 1782) and the American Sway & Ely's The Songster's Assistant (Suffield, Conn., 1800). It begins:

Come all you young lovers who wan with despair,
Composed idle sonnets, and long for the fair;
Who puff up their pride by enhancing their charms,
And tell them 'tis heaven to lie in their arms;
Be wise, by example, take pattern from me,
For let what will happen, by Jove, I'll be free.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3), 1788; No. 498, p. 191

Recorded sources:

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